


They Say That A Hero Can Save Us

by roseclaw



Category: Heroes - Fandom, High School Musical
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-17
Updated: 2009-11-17
Packaged: 2017-10-03 05:32:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseclaw/pseuds/roseclaw





	They Say That A Hero Can Save Us

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[a hero can save us](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/a+hero+can+save+us), [chad danforth](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/chad+danforth), [crack](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/crack), [fic](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [heroes](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/heroes), [het](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/het), [hsm](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/hsm), [mohinder's pink shirt](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/mohinder%27s+pink+shirt), [rating: pg-13](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/rating:+pg-13), [ryan evans](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/ryan+evans), [slash](http://autonomyanatomy.livejournal.com/tag/slash)  
  
---|---  
  
**Fandom**: High School Musical/Heroes - yeah, I went there.  
**Pairing**: Ryan/Chad, Troy/Gabriella   
**Rating**: NC-17 total, PG-13 this part  
**Word Count**: ~ 32,000 total, 6,172 this part  
**Warnings**: Spoilers for the season finale of Heroes as well as major ideas/characters in season two. This fic contains slash, crass language, sexual content, plausible science, and _hardcore crack_.   
**Author's Note**: This fic diverges from Heroes canon after Run! And takes place the fall semester after HSM2.  
Chad is on the basketball, the baseball, and the track and field team according to HSM2. However, that makes no sense because both baseball and track are spring sports, unless it's indoor track which is a winter sport - like basketball. So therefore, in this universe, Chad runs cross country, a fall sport (even if he isn't built like a long-distance runner - I'd say his event would be the 400 or even the 800). And Ryan does have a rubber ducky key chain - check out the scene when Taylor and Gabriella pick him up to go to the baseball game. Adorable! Also, I really like Taylor… I have no idea why she's not in this fic except for a few passing mentions. Huh.  
Beta-ed by the ever amazing , so the remaining errors are my own because I couldn't stop tinkering with this fic.  
**Disclaimer**: HSM belongs to Ortega and Disney, and Heroes belongs to Kring and NBC. There are references to several other sources including _Stargate: Atlantis, Supernatural, Miss Congeniality, Finding Nemo_, and fics written by other people. I take no credit for those ideas.  
**Disclaimer 2**: I do not condone the use of any conjugation of the verb "to get" in place of any conjugation of the verb "to be."  
**Summary**: He couldn't remember if he was indestructible because he was gay or gay because he was indestructible.

\---

They Say that a Hero Can Save Us: How Chad and Ryan Attempted to Keep Peter Petrelli from Going Boom

\---

When it started, his first reaction was to freak out. Long and hard. Which he did. He didn't sleep for two days, and he didn't even notice it until all of his friends pointed out that he looked like shit. He was too busy freaking out.

Since then, he had tried all sorts of experiments on himself after enlisting the help of East High's golden couple who he had sworn to secrecy.

After a month of continuous experimentation, Gabriella pronounced Chad indestructible.

They stood in the Bolton's kitchen with their heads bowed together over the island. Troy was stuffing himself with leftovers from the night before and ignoring the other two. According to him, Chad should have finished his freak-out weeks ago.

"Are you sure?" Chad whined.

"We've tried everything short of dropping an atomic bomb on you, Chad," Gabriella said patiently.

"Couldn't you build one or something?"

"I don't think the government would let me acquire all the materials I'd need."

"That wasn't a "no"!" Chad crowed.

"That's a "no," Chad," she responded with a fond smile.

"What're we saying "no" to?" Troy asked through a mouthful of turkey.

"Your girl won't make a bomb to drop on me," Chad said with an exaggerated pout.

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Yeah, but I still think she should do it." Chad shrugged.

"You're a good friend, Chad," Gabriella teased.

"What? I don't think there's anything wrong with asking someone to test the limits of her intelligence."

"There's nothing wrong with that, no."

Chad's cell phone rang. "Uh, guys? Where's the area code for 718?"

"I think that's somewhere on the East Coast," Gabriella hypothesized.

"Do you know anyone on the East Coast?" Troy asked.

"No, dude. I don't know anyone who doesn't live in this area code."

"Are you going to answer that?"

"I… don't know."

"It couldn't hurt."

Chad shrugged and flipped open his phone. "Hello? Yeah, that's me. How did you get this num- Um… what? How would you know about…"

Troy and Gabriella watched him with rapt attention.

"No. This is a 505 number. I don't even know where you are. Oh. Dude, I'm 17. I don't even own a car… Yeah, you said it, man… If it would help the future of mankind, I guess that would be cool. You're not some psycho who's going to kill me, right? …Shit! Are you serious?! …Oh, I'm sorry for your loss. Yeah, but, uh, my Mom doesn't know about that, 'k? …Whatever you say, man. Bye."

Troy and Gabriella watched Chad eagerly awaiting an explanation.

"Troy? Can I borrow your computer?"

"Only if you tell us what the hell that was about?"

"That was a call I wish I had had a month ago."

"Meaning?"

"That was some British doctor from New York. Uh, a Doctor Sure-ish. He knows about what I can do 'cause he's been following "DNA migration." I didn't really understand that part. He wants to meet with me. And there's a psycho killer on the loose who's killing people like me… There are more people like me."

"So why do you need the computer?" Troy asked. Gabriella said nothing, just stared at Chad pensively with her head tipped slightly to the side.

"To see if he's the psycho killer."

"Chandra," Gabriella announced.

"Wha?"

"Chandra Suresh. I should have done that in the first place!"

"What's a Chandra?"

"It's his name. Doctor Suresh's name. He wrote a book. We'll go to the library to pick it up!"

"Gabby, he said his name was Mo-something. Mo-cinder maybe?"

"Mo-something?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"Yeah, and he's gonna talk to me about what I can do and stuff. Hey, Gabby, could you translate for me?"

She frowned. "You said he was British. They speak English in England, and you had no problem conversing over the phone. In fact you're acing English."

"He may speak English, but I don't speak science."

She smiled. "As long as it doesn't interfere with rehearsals, I don't see a problem with that. Let's head to the library before it closes."

"Wait, all of us?" Chad asked. "But it's a Saturday!"

"Which means it'll be open only for another two hours," Gabriella pointed out cheerfully.

"But it's the weekend!" Chad protested. "Books and weekends should never mix. That's, like, the Golden Rule."

Troy raised his eyebrows and looked to Gabriella. "Isn't that "Do Unto Others"?"

She nodded. "C'mon, Chad. We can look up Doctor Suresh on the computers in the library too."

"You kids have fun now," Troy said. "Let me know if Chad's gonna meet up with a psycho killer."

"You're not coming with?" Chad demanded. "This is my hour of need!"

"Your hour of need was a month ago. Plus, I'm not good with the book thing. You're better off with Gabs."

"Your loss," Chad shrugged.

"That's all the fight you're going to put up?" Troy's eyebrows rose.

"If I didn't have to be there, I wouldn't."

"Don't worry, Wildcat. I'll keep the evil bookworms from biting you."

Chad slung an arm around her shoulder. "But who will protect you? And they're not just evil bookworms, Gabby; they're evil _science_ bookworms!"

"I'm impervious to the evil bookworms of all types."

"If you think so," Chad relented. "Don't wait up for us, Troy! We'll call you if Gabby's eaten by a bookworm… or we'll probably be back in an hour. One or the other."

"Be careful, Danforth, bookworms are not to be messed with," Troy said, deadly serious.

* - * - *

The science section of the library was on the second floor and one wall was covered in windows, letting in the autumn afternoon sun. Chad was thankful for that sun, so that he didn't feel trapped in the tall stacks of books.

He sullenly followed Gabriella down one aisle as she muttered numbers and letters. She stopped at the end of the aisle and carefully inspected the labels on the lower spines of the books. She kneeled down, frowned, stood and then rounded the corner looking up in one fluid motion.

Chad didn't have the chance to follow her before he heard her "oof!"

"Gabby?" He rounded the corner. "You o- oh!" He came face to face with Ryan Evans. "Evans?"

"Danforth," Ryan said, disdain leaking into his voice. "What are you doing in a library?"

"I could ask you the same," Chad challenged.

"That's the book!" Gabriella announced. She pointed to the book Ryan had in his hands.

Things became a thousand times more awkward.

"Why do you need this book?" All three of them asked at the same time.

No one could give the obvious, truthful option, and no one could give the obvious plausible lie that it was for a biology project �" not when they were all in the same physics class. All students took biology as sophomores. Well, Chad and Ryan were in the class, and Gabriella TA-ed for it.

"What can you do?" Gabriella asked delicately. She placed a comforting hand on Ryan's bicep.

His manic eyes bounced between Gabriella and Chad. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he responded haughtily.

"Then you wouldn't want that book." Chad pointed to the book for extra emphasis.

Ryan looked down the aisle and then peered around the corner, on the lookout for eavesdroppers. "If you tell anyone, I will hire someone to take out you and everyone you've ever cared about - or will care about," he growled.

They waited for him to continue. When he didn't, Gabriella prompted again, "What can you do?"

Ryan stammered a bit. "I, uh, absorb what other people do."

Before Gabriella could respond by asking him who he had met and what they could do, Chad blurted out, "You're a sponge." He sniggered.

Ryan glared at him in contempt. "I assume that because Girl Wonder is here, you're the one who can do something interesting, otherwise she'd be here by herself."

Chad choked before he recovered and said proudly, "I'm indestructible."

Ryan eyed him warily. "So if I did send out a hit on you, you'd survive?"

"Yup."

Ryan regarded him carefully.

"Since we all want the book, let's take it to my house so we can discuss this in private," Gabriella offered.

Chad and Ryan looked at her in stunned silence, and then they sized each other up.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "You guys got along well over the summer. Just because classes started, doesn't mean you can't get along now."

Gabriella didn't understand that this was Chad's thing. He was special. This was what he could do that Troy couldn't. And now Ryan was threatening to take that from him. It was like that baseball game all over again, and Chad didn't want to end up with another mutual, furtive handjob in the locker room and an ultimate switch in clothing that Chad should have said no to, but he was too high on his release to think much about it.

It made things awkward.

"I don't see how that could hurt," Chad grumbled.

Ryan raised a delicately groomed eyebrow. "As long as Shar doesn't find out."

Gabriella grinned. "Great!"

* - * - *

They holed themselves up in Gabriella's room, and on Chad's third brownie, Ryan challenged him. He wanted to see exactly what Chad could do.

"Only if I can see you do it, too," Chad agreed.

Ryan nodded.

"Hey, Gabby, what was the first thing we tried?"

She looked up from the book. "We cut your forearm, but that wasn't the first thing that you tried."

"I was really hoping that incident would remain buried forever."

Ryan peered at him curiously.

"Don't. Ask," Chad said firmly.

"I'll go fetch a sharp knife from the kitchen. While I'm gone, Chad, you might want to take a look at the last paragraph in the chapter on rapid cellular regeneration."

Chad frowned.

"That's what you can do."

"Oh."

She handed him the book and left the room.

He read the paragraph, and then he read it again.

"It can't honestly take you that long to read," Ryan huffed impatiently. "What does it say?"

"It says that "individuals with rapid cellular regeneration have the potential to outlive those without. This could result in the lack of natural aging as caused by illness, injury and natural apoptosis resulting from…" And then it goes on about science stuff, but ends with: "These individuals who never age or die could potentially live forever in immortality and forever be at the height of their reproductive years as dictated by…" blah, blah, blah, more science."

"You're immortal?"

"Uh, wow."

Gabriella returned with a steak knife.

"Gabby, am I gonna live forever?" Chad asked, almost afraid of the answer. Forever was a long time. A very long time.

"I don't know, Chad. That's something you need to talk to Dr. Suresh about." She handed the knife to Chad, handle first. "Be careful not to drip blood on my floor."

"Maybe we should do this in the bathroom," Ryan offered, eyeing the knife suspiciously.

"That would probably be for the best," Gabriella concurred.

It was awkward for all of them to cram inside the tiny bathroom, but they maneuvered so that Chad stood at the sink, Ryan sat on the rim of the bathtub, and Gabriella sat on the closed toilet seat.

Chad took a deep breath and carefully dug the knife across his forearm. Blood dripped down his arm and into the sink. Gabriella watched in fascination, and Ryan cringed and looked away.

Chad huffed at him. "It's just a little bit of blood." He ran the tap over his wound to wash away the blood. "Besides, it's gone now."

Ryan's eyes snapped to Chad's forearm. There was no sign that it had ever been marred, not even a scar. He looked up to Chad's face, astonished. "How did you do that?"

Chad shrugged. "How do you do your sponge thing?"

"When I'm around people who do things like that" - he pointed to Chad's forearm - "I seem to be able to do them too."

"Would you mind if you demonstrated?" Gabriella asked. "I can prick your finger if that makes you feel more comfortable."

Ryan nodded distractedly as Gabriella changed positions with Chad.

"I'm left handed," Ryan said, holding out his right hand. She held his hand over the tub and poked the pad of his right pinky.

Ryan hissed in pain as his blood welled up for a moment but then was sucked back into his body. Chad surmised that it probably wasn't healthy for the blood to go back into Ryan's body, but if he was immortal, what the hell.

"That was interesting," Gabriella appraised. "You boys head back to my room, and I'll clean the knife and return it to the kitchen."

Chad and Ryan sat on opposite sides of Gabriella's bedroom and silently waited for her to return, and when she did, she carried more brownies.

Chad grabbed one and shoved it into his mouth. "Your Mom is awesome, Gabby."

She smiled indulgently. "Ryan, would it be alright if asked you some questions? I've been asking Chad all these questions for the past month. I really want to understand this phenomenon."

"A month? You've known about what you can do for a month?"

"Yeah, why? How long have you known about the sponge thing?"

"A few days," he admitted.

"Ryan? What was the first power that manifested?"

"Persuasion," he clipped.

"Manifested? You make it sound like a disease," Chad blurted out.

"That's festered," Gabriella explained patiently. Chad gave her a sour look: that girl had a weird sense of humor that he would never understand. She was too serious, and she did not understand his sense of humor. "Could you please demonstrate?" Ryan looked panicked. "I'm not asking you to make one of us jump out the window, just a simple thing, like to write your name on a piece of paper or sing a song."

Ryan studied her face with dubious expression on his own. "Um… I think it requires physical contact."

He walked over to Chad who looked as if he were on the verge of cardiac arrest.

"Relax, Chad, even if he does ask you to jump out a window, you'll be fine."

"It still _hurts_!" he squawked.

Ryan placed a hand over Chad's. "Dance with me."

Without so much as a pout, Chad stood up and spun around the room with Ryan.

When Chad sat back down again, he seemed to realize what he had done. "What the hell was that?! That was embarrassing!"

Ryan smirked in triumph.

"Amazing!" Gabriella whispered. "What else can you do?"

Emboldened, Ryan asked, "Can I please see your necklace?"

Gabriella fingered her "T" necklace before handing it to Ryan. "Just don't hurt it."

"I'm going to improve it," he said with a smile.

Suspiciously, Gabriella handed him the necklace. "That's very important to me."

"It labels her as Troy's property," Chad scoffed.

"Is that really your opinion of me, Chad?" Gabriella said, low and dangerous.

Chad had never heard Gabriella use that tone before, and it unsettled him. "No, it's just kinda archaic and stuff."

Gabriella hummed but said nothing.

"Guys?" Ryan ventured. "I did it." He held out Gabriella's necklace, which had turned from sterling silver to gold.

"Oh my gosh!" Gabriella gushed. "That is so nice of you, Ryan!"

"Did you just say "gosh"?" Chad asked with a chortle.

Gabriella nodded distractedly as she stroked her new necklace.

"I think we just found the secret of the Evans' fortune," Chad announced. Ryan's eyes went wide again. "Oh, would you relax, Evans. We're obviously not going to tell. Was it your Mom or your Dad who you picked that up from?"

"I don't know. I don't know I'm absorbing a power when it happens."

Gabriella gasped dramatically. "What about your sister?!"

"What about her?" Chad asked, obviously not following Gabriella's logic.

"This is a genetic condition, and they're twins," Gabriella pointed out.

Ryan blushed. "I, uh, I haven't spoken to Shar about it… yet."

"So she might also be experiencing this?"

"Oh God, I hope her power wasn't the persuasion one. Your sister would totally take advantage of _everyone_," Chad moaned. Not that she didn't already.

"Do you have any other powers to add to the mix?" Gabriella prompted, choosing to ignore Chad's outburst.

"Not that I know of."

"You should join us when we meet with Dr. Suresh," Gabriella offered.

"You're meeting with Dr. Suresh? But he lives in India."

"He's in NYC now. He called me from outta the blue and asked to meet with me. Something having to do with DNA flying south for the winter."

"That makes no sense, Chad," Gabriella admonished softly. Chad shook his head. That girl really needed a sense of humor. "He means DNA migrational patterns."

"That would be very informational," Ryan said with a nod. "When are you meeting?"

"We don't know yet," Chad shrugged.

"Gabriella!" her mother shouted from downstairs. "There's a handsome young man here to see you!"

Gabriella squealed. "Send Troy up!"

There was a knock on her door, and she threw it open and wrapped herself around Troy.

"Hey, beautiful. You said you would be done in an hour."

"You missed me?"

"Of course I missed you." Troy bent his head so that their foreheads rested together.

"Oh gag!" Chad choked.

Troy looked past Gabriella. "Don't hate a brothah for gettin' some lovin'."

Chad cringed. "You are not allowed to say that ever again."

"Too painful?"

"Oh, yeah."

Troy finally took notice of the rest of the room. "Ryan? What's going on here?"

"He's like Chad," Gabriella explained excitedly. "We ran into him at the library."

Ryan scowled.

"So you're indestructible too?" Troy asked.

Gabriella closed the door behind him. "I'm sorry, Ryan. Troy won't tell anyone either. We've been keeping Chad's secret for the past month. Taylor doesn't even know anything."

"This is all happening really quickly. I haven't even told my sister yet."

"Oh! Shit, man. Is your sister indestructible too?"

"It's a little more complicated than that," Gabriella explained. She snatched the book up. "There're more powers than Chad's rapid cellular regeneration." She held her necklace charm up for Troy's inspection. "Ryan has the Midas Touch; although, at this point, he's more like Nicolas Flamel."

"Who?" Chad asked.

Ryan gave him a condescending look. "I'd trust that even _Harry Potter_ is up to your reading level, Danforth."

Chad's nostrils flared in annoyance.

"He's an alchemist," Gabriella said quickly. "With the help of the philosopher's stone, he was able too turn objects to gold as well as live forever."

"So Ryan's gonna live forever?" Troy asked. "How?"

"The same way that Chad is."

Troy sniggered. "Of all the people I expected Chad to live with forever, it was never Ryan."

"Oh, ha friggen ha," Chad snarled. Ryan looked equally as offended.

"What's your damage?" Troy asked, concerned.

Chad folded his arms over his chest. His damage was that Ryan had pouty lips. Pouty lips that Chad wanted to do nasty things to him. He wanted more than some frottage in the locker room. In fact, that had been all he could think about all summer. And those thoughts had caused Chad to break up with his kinda-sorta girlfriend.

Then there was that time after the championship game last year at the after party where he was supposed to be with his kinda-sorta girlfriend, but he just ended up with Ryan in the Bolton's laundry room, which was as much a surprise to him as Ryan and nothing short of awesome.

And there was also that time in the bathroom at homecoming…

But Ryan probably saw those times as jock conquests.

God, Chad was so gay… and so doomed.

Ryan paled. "What did you just say?"

Chad looked to Ryan in horror. "Oh, no, no, no, no, _no_. Tell me you did not just do that?"

"I wasn't the one who just confessed to - "

"Ryan," Gabriella interrupted firmly. "Chad didn't say anything."

"He didn't say anything?"

"Oh my gosh!" Gabriella gushed. "This is so incredible! What am I thinking?"

"Are you serious?!" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, now focus on me, and tell everyone what I'm thinking."

"I - I don't know! This entire thing is absurd. I don't even know why I agreed to come here." He had almost stalked out the door when Troy grabbed him and pulled him out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

Gabriella and Chad pressed up against the door to hear what was said.

"Hey man, I know that all of this is really confusing, but we helped Chad through it. You should have seen him when he first figured it out." Chad huffed. "It was messy. But it's really cool. I mean, you can do what? Turn things to gold, live forever, and read minds. That's really awesome. Who else can do that? So let Gabs help you. If anyone here can help you, she can."

Ryan hmphed.

"Plus, if you really can read minds, school's gonna really suck."

"How do you mean?"

"Hundreds of kids all thinking things at the same time, especially things that they shouldn't be thinking in school. Hearing all that's gonna suck."

"Fine."

"And if you get really frustrated, you can push Chad off the balcony, no harm done."

"Hey!" Chad protested as Troy opened up the door. "I feel pain!"

"And you shouldn't have been eavesdropping."

Chad shrugged unapologetically.

"So you're going to let us help?"

"I suppose," Ryan shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged with his whole body, bouncing on his toes.

Chad looked him up and down, and an unsettling feeling of déjà vu fell over him. For continuality's sake, he asked, "You got game?"

Ryan cocked an eyebrow at Chad. "Bet on it."

"Boys," Gabriella admonished. "There will be no pissing contests in my room. Now you two need to get along because you're stuck with each other."

"Yeah," Troy added. "If there ever was a nuclear holocaust, you two would be, like, the only two people left in the world."

"Not helpful, Troy," Chad said blandly.

"Boys covers all three of you," Gabriella pointed out. "Now, Chad and Troy, you think about basketball. I'll think about something else. Ryan, I want you to focus on me, alright?"

"Sure."

* - * - *

The following Monday was awkward. Chad tried so hard to keep his mind blank whenever he was around Ryan, but it was more difficult than he thought it would be. He kept thinking about inappropriate things, because apparently the knee-jerk reaction to knowing someone is reading your mind is to think up all the things you don't want that person to know. A lot of it was trivial, but some of it was downright embarrassing… and dirty.

Ryan kept giving him poisonous looks across rooms, and by lunch, Chad thought that he should just shoot himself to end the humiliation. Not that it really would do any good.

His mind went blissfully blank when Sharpay stalked up to him at lunch. Actually, it became a mantra of "oh shit!"

"You and I are talking outside. Now." She flipped her hair at him and stalked out of the cafeteria.

Chad scrambled after her.

When he flew out of the cafeteria, Sharpay crowded him against a wall.

"You're perverted!" she declared. "You need to stop muttering all that revolting drivel about some apparent hookups you had with my brother months ago. It's distasteful."

"Oh shit," Chad said. "At least it's not the persuasion."

"That means nothing to me. Now desist, or I will end you."

Chad smiled at her lopsidedly. "You might want to talk to your brother about that first. I mean, he and I share more than - "

"If you finish that sentence, I may have to end you myself. Which would be a tragedy because I just had my nails done."

Someone who wasn't Chad snorted. He and Sharpay looked to the source of the noise.

"Ryan. Are you aware of the filth that has been spewing out of _his_ mouth?" Sharpay asked disdainfully.

"He hasn't said a word, Shar," Ryan explained.

Chad waggled his eyebrows.

"Chad, give us a moment."

Chad nodded and headed back into the cafeteria to actually eat his lunch. He found Troy and Gabriella as they were about to sit down.

"Hey guys, can I tell you something real quick? It has to do with the twins."

Gabriella and Troy shared a look.

"Just quick, man."

"Sure."

Chad led them to a corner of the cafeteria. "Sharpay can read minds."

"At least it's not the persuasion," Gabriella shrugged.

"What persuasion?" Troy asked.

"Ryan can also persuade someone to do anything just by touching them."

"I'm glad that Sharpay can't do that."

"Yeah, but is telepathy really that much better?" Chad whined.

Troy frowned dramatically.

"Whatever," Chad conceded. "I'm hungry."

They headed back to their table, where Ryan was waiting, and Sharpay was waiting impatiently.

Sharpay didn't wait for Chad to open his mouth before she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tugged him out of the cafeteria. Her fingernails bit into his flesh.

"Troy, could you grab my lunch?" he shouted on the way out.

Troy, Gabriella, and Ryan followed behind them.

Sharpay dragged him all the way outside.

"Have you ever thought of trimming your nails? They hurt!"

"Oh, like it matters for you," she huffed.

"Of course it matters!"

"But you heal."

"Why would you say that?" Chad challenged.

"You told me, like, right now, and Ryan did earlier."

"Why does everyone think that, just because I heal, I don't feel pain?" he griped.

"Whatever." She held her palm up to his face. "Explain to me how this happened."

"You're gonna need to talk to Gabby about it. I have no idea."

"It's genetic," Gabriella announced, showing up with Troy and Ryan. "A genetic imperative. The further evolution of us as a species."

Sharpay snorted. "I always knew Ryan and I were advanced, I just never imagined Danforth to be on the same level as us."

Chad let out an involuntary "hey!"

"Oh, please," she said. "Like you could ever be good enough for my brother."

"What?!" Chad shouted at the same time Ryan blurted out, "Excuse me?!" Troy and Gabriella settled on looks of confusion.

Sharpay looked Chad up and down. "You've been going on about it all day."

"That's 'cause Ryan could read my mind!" Chad confessed. "It's, like, one of the rules of mind-reading: you always think things that you know you shouldn't think when in the presence of a mind-reader."

"What are you talking about, Chad?" Ryan asked.

"What is Sharpay talking about?" Gabriella asked.

"What is he talking about?" Sharpay asked.

"What the hell is going on here?" Troy asked.

"My life is over," Chad grumbled. He dropped to the sidewalk curb and buried his face in his hands. "How much does Sharpay know?" he asked through his fingers.

He could hear Ryan's smirk before he could hear his voice. "She knows whatever you know."

"What does that _mean_?" Sharpay asked, exasperated.

"He means," Gabriella said, "that you can read all of our minds."

"So, I was stuck reading _that_ mind?" She pointed at Chad accusingly. "It's a filthy, filthy place!"

"You're taking this surprisingly well," Gabriella noticed.

"My mother always told me I was special," she shrugged.

"She's been hearing voices for days," Ryan said.

"Ryan!" Sharpay chided.

He gave her a shy smile. "I can do what you can do, sis."

"What do you…" she trailed off.

"Because of…" Ryan trailed off.

Chad looked up from her perch on the curb. "Please tell me they're not doing some freaky twin telepathic communication thing."

"I think they are," Gabriella confirmed.

"That is totally not cool."

"What was Sharpay talking about with you and Ryan?" Troy asked.

"I stand corrected: _that_ is totally not cool."

"Chad?" Gabriella pressed.

"He and Ryan hooked up several times, and Chad wants to do it again," Sharpay said offhandedly. Ryan frowned, and Sharpay continued, "And apparently so does Ryan. Hmm. Three times and you haven't figured out that you should do it? But you're still not good enough for my brother, so don't plan on spending eternity together… oh, well. Never mind."

"That's it," Chad announced. "The world is ending. Right here, right now. And that twin telepathy thing is also totally not cool. Wait… Did you just give us your blessing?" His voice ended up squeaking with incredulity.

"Yes. Ryan disserves a little bit of happiness if he's going to spend the rest of eternity with no one but you for company. Even if you are a jock. Toodles!" She headed back into the school as the bell rang.

"And I didn't have lunch," Chad moaned.

"You hooked up with _Ryan_?" Troy choked out. "When?"

"That's the only question you're going to ask?" Chad craned his neck to look up at Troy. "Not "hey, dude, since when are you gay?""

"No, I already knew that."

"What?!"

"We're like brothers, man. Ask Ryan, siblings know everything about their siblings."

Ryan nodded. Of course in his case, that was now true on a very, very literal level.

"You've always had a bored expression during bikini season," Troy explained. "As if you had something better to do than stare at - " Troy cut himself off at Gabriella's disapproving frown.

Chad scowled at Troy. "At homecoming… and the championship game after party… and over the summer when you and Gabby were having your drama thing and you became a jackass. After the employee baseball game."

"Nice, Chad, real nice."

"_That_ was why you switched clothes," Gabriella realized.

All three boys looked to her in disbelief.

"They switched clothes?"

"Why else would we have switched clothes?"

"To show solidarity?" she ventured.

Troy pursed his lips, and Chad itched to say something about Disney naivety.

Ryan looked over to Chad and tried to hide his smirk.

"Troy." Gabriella grabbed Troy's arm. "Let's go to class."

She led Troy back into the school, leaving Ryan and Chad out in front of the school.

"This is awkward," Chad said.

"Yes. It is," Ryan agreed.

"You do realize that I'm gonna need years of therapy to wipe the last twenty minutes from my memory entirely."

"I could persuade you to never think about it again," Ryan offered.

"Why couldn't you just persuade me not to think about you and your freaky, pouty lips?"

"It kept me entertained in physics," Ryan shrugged.

"It amuses you when I make a fool out of myself?" Chad demanded.

Ryan puckered his lips together so that they most definitely did not make Chad think of something sexual and said, "Pretty much."

"Ugh!" Chad groaned empathetically.

"What are you doing after school?" Ryan asked.

"You're not serious! Tell me you're not serious!"

"I am serious, and stop thinking about that."

"About what?"

"I hope you know what you're thinking about."

"No!"

"Are you always this much of a whiny bitch?"

"What?!"

"I'll take that as a yes."

"I'm not a whiny bitch!"

"Then why aren't you acting on your thoughts?"

"Because I should be in history class. Right now."

"But you're not, so - "

Chad's cell phone rang. It was a 718 number, but not the same one as earlier.

"Hello?" he asked as he flipped it open. "Oh, hey, Dr. Suresh. I'm kinda at school right now. Oh, cool. We can be there in - " He put his hand over the receiver. "Hey, Ryan, how soon can we be downtown?"

"Ten minutes, why?"

"We'll be there in ten minutes. What's the address, again? Okay… Uh, Ryan Evans. He does stuff too. And maybe my friend Gabby. She translates science into English. Okay. Bye."

"Was that really Dr. Suresh?"

"Yup, and we're gonna meet him in the Albuquerque Library right now. We need Gabby, though."

Gabriella came running out of the school. "Guys! You really need to get to history!"

"Awesome!" Chad grabbed Gabby and directed her out into the parking lot by her shoulders. "Let's go!"

"What? I said that you were in the nurse's office, and I would bring you back. We have a test!"

"Dr. Suresh called. We need to be downtown in ten minutes."

Gabriella looked like Christmas had come early. "Let me grab my purse. I'll be out in a minute."

"Wow, she _would_ skip school if there were a dorkier option." Chad turned to Ryan. "You're driving, by the way."

Ryan rolled his eyes. Chad had a way of stating the obvious.

"What?" Chad asked, wrinkling his nose.

"I can read your mind," Ryan reminded him.

"Ugh. Don't remind me."

* - * - *

"What did you tell Troy?" Chad asked. He still hadn't eaten his lunch. The brown bag sat in his lap and would remain there until they reached the library. Ryan had a no food rule in his car. Chad was hungry… and sulking. And he knew that Ryan could hear every word he didn't say. He spent a good deal of energy mocking Ryan's rubber ducky key chain.

"I didn't tell him anything, so he's going to call me once class is over." Gabriella leaned forward in her seat so that she was between the driver's and passenger's seat.

"I still can't believe we convinced you to skip class," Chad said, awed.

"I can make up the exam later. This is too exciting to be missed."

"I don't understand this science thing. It's not that big a deal."

"It is a big deal! Just think of the implications of genetic evidence of evolution within our own species. This could finally put all those creationists in their places and cause people to think of themselves as part of the Kingdom Animalea instead of as a - "

"Okay, Gabby, I get it. You're excited."

"Just be glad you can't see what's happening in her head."

"Believe me, I'm glad."

They lapsed into silence, and Gabriella sunk back into her seat.

Not five minutes later, Ryan began humming a show tune that Chad didn't recognize.

"It's from "Hair,"" Ryan explained.

"That's really freaky," Chad responded. "Answering questions that I haven't asked yet."

Ryan shrugged and went back to singing his song. Gabriella started singing along with him, and Chad groaned and banged his head against the headrest.

Ryan looked over to Chad and smirked. With is left hand steady on the wheel, he snaked his right hand onto Chad's thigh, narrow fingers running along the inseam of Chad's jeans.

Chad squeaked and sat up straight.

"Are you okay, Chad?" Gabriella asked.

"Uh, yeah," he wheezed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." He cleared his throat, and then repeated, "Yeah. I'm cool."

Ryan's fingers ran up the inseam of Chad's left leg, over his crotch, and then down the inseam of his right leg. "If you're not feeling well, I could drop you off at the hospital, and Gabriella and I could meet with Dr. Suresh."

Chad swatted Ryan's hand away. "No, I'm fine now." Ryan started doing something obscene to the gear shift. "Stop that, Evans!" In his head, Chad told Ryan to stop being a tease.

Ryan put his right hand back on the wheel as they pulled off I25 into Albuquerque.

"The library is on Copper Avenue," Gabriella said, helpfully.

* - * - *

They entered the library, and Chad realized that he had no idea what Dr. Suresh looked like.

"He's that man over there," Ryan said. "The one with hair that's as almost as untamed as your own."

"The one in the pink shirt?" Gabriella asked. "He's very attractive."

"That is a very pink shirt," Chad said vaguely. He made no effort to go over to the man in the very pink shirt.

"Come on, Wildcat. Go over to him," Gabriella put a hand in the middle of Chad's back.

Chad approached the man in the pink shirt. "Uh, hey. I'm Chad Danforth. You must be Dr. Suresh."

A huge smile broke out on Dr. Suresh's face, and he held his hand out. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Danforth."

"You too. Uh, this is Ryan Evans and Gabriella Montez."

Dr. Suresh nodded politely. "Please, let us go someplace. I have so many questions, Mr. Danforth."

"Call me Chad. Mr. Danforth makes me feel old."

"Very well."

"Hey, Gabby, you know this library. Where can we go so people won't, uh, eavesdrop?"

"We want to be discrete," Ryan said.

"Of course."

"There's a meeting room where we can do this. No one will be able to see what we're doing."

Ryan looked to her and nodded. Chad had no idea what was going on.

"He's what he says he is," Ryan explained.

Dr. Suresh looked confused. "I don't understand."

Ryan looked him up and down critically. "I know."

"Um, boys. Let's go explain this to Dr. Suresh instead of confusing the poor man." She smiled politely at him and his very pink shirt.

* - * - *

When the heavy oak door closed behind the four of them, Chad blurted out, "This is really weird."

"Chad, could you please take a seat," Dr. Suresh

"He wants to see what you can do," Ryan said.

Chad gave him an unimpressed look. "I figured that part. Give me your keys." He held out his hand.

"Oh, no. I will not have blood on my keys. It'll get into the ignition and who knows what that'll do to my car."

"So buy another one. You're not hurting for money."

Ryan took a dramatic breath. "Just wash all of the blood off."

Dr. Suresh was even more confused.

Ryan reluctantly gave Chad his keys. Chad dug the key into his forearm. It looked rather silly to have a key with a bright yellow duck attached sticking out of his forearm.

"Chad!" Dr. Suresh shouted. "What are you doing?!"

Gabriella handed Chad a tissue that she plucked from her purse. He mopped up the blood from his arm and Ryan's key and presented his arm to Dr. Suresh.

"I heal," Chad said needlessly.

"Rapid cellular regeneration," Dr. Suresh said softly, awed.

"Yeah, that," Chad said. "I probably have more questions than you do at the moment. Most importantly: Am I going to live forever?"

"I, uh, I'm not precisely sure at the moment. I only have some of my father's research notes, and he had yet to contact someone with the ability to regenerate. However, in theory, your cells would not die from natural aging if they were properly nourished. That may significantly slow or even halt the aging process, but I have never witnessed it in practice."

Chad looked to Gabriella.

"You _could_ live forever," she translated.

"Great," Chad scoffed.

"I do believe that if trauma to a certain part in the brain, the control center for the ability, were to occur you may die."

"So I shouldn't hit my head?" Chad asked. "But I - " He cut himself off.

"No, a hit to the head would not cause enough trauma to render the ability nonfunctional. It would need to be something that would actually tear apart that part of the brain and keep it apart, such as decapitation."

"I don't think I have to worry about decapitation."

"Wear your seatbelt, Chad," Gabriella warned. "A car accident could cause decapitation."

"Lovely," he sneered.

"Sylar," Ryan whispered. Only Chad heard it, though. He would ask later.

Dr. Suresh dug into his messenger bag. "Could I trouble you for a DNA sample? Just swab the inside of your mouth."

"You're not gonna try to clone me, are you?" Chad asked suspiciously.

"No, I'm collecting DNA from people such as yourself to find the genetic cause of the ability. And at this point in time, I lack a laboratory to do anything more than sequence the DNA."

"You have a sequencer?" Gabriella asked enthusiastically.

"Oh, no. I need to send the sample to a lab to be sequenced. I prepare it for sequencing, and that's it."

Chad swabbed the inside of his cheek with the cotton swab and handed it back to Dr. Suresh. Dr. Suresh put the swab back into his back and pulled out a notebook and a pen.

"Chad, when did you first notice this ability?"

"About a month ago," he answered distractedly. He dug his lunch out and shoved it into his mouth.

"How?"

"I'd… I'd, uh, rather not say. Other than I hurt myself pretty badly," he said around his sandwich.

Ryan snickered behind his hand.

"Shut up, Evans," Chad growled.

"Where your relatives and friends suspicious of how quickly you healed?"

"They didn't know I had hurt myself."

Again, Ryan snickered. "Tell the good doctor how you hurt yourself, or he may not be able to properly assess your ability."

"That was exactly what I was thinking," Dr. Suresh said.

"I know," Ryan said cheekily.

"Show off," Chad mumbled. "Ryan can read minds."

"A telepath? How fascinating!"

"Don't divert attention from your humiliating adventures with healing."

"I tripped over my own feet and cracked open my skull on a rock when I couldn't catch myself. There were bits of my blood and brains all over the place. It was really gross." Chad flushed.

"I can see how you would not wish to mention that," Dr. Suresh said pensively.

"Yeah," Chad said, glaring at Ryan, who tried to look innocent.

Gabriella's cell phone rang. "That's Troy. I'm going to take this outside. Have fun, boys!" She flew out of the room with a silly grin on her face.

"Ah, young love," Chad said sardonically.

Dr. Suresh cleared his throat discretely. "Now, what other ways have you experimented with your ability?"

"Uh, pretty much everything but dropping a bomb on me."

"What specifically did you do?"

"I cut myself; I was hit by a car at a couple of different speeds; I broke a whole bunch'a bones; I was bitten by a rattlesnake - that one was also an accident; I was pushed off a bridge; I, uh, did some other stuff too."

"Have you ever regrown a missing appendage?"

"Yeah… I cut the top of my finger off when making dinner one night, and it grew back."

"Who's Shanti?" Ryan asked abruptly.

"I beg your pardon!" Dr. Suresh exclaimed.

"You were wondering if he would be immune to the virus that killed Shanti," Ryan clarified.

"The mind reading is really weird," Chad said helpfully. "And really freaky."

"Shanti was my sister," Dr. Suresh explained. "She had an ability, and she died before I was born. The virus she died of targets people with abilities like you two boys."

"So not only do we have to worry about serial killers, but we also have to worry about a nasty killer virus?"

"I'm afraid so. I am averse to testing to see your body's reaction to that virus or any other debilitating disease."

"I've never been sick in my life, like with a cold or flu or even the chicken pox," Chad offered.

"Fascinating! You've never been ill?"

"Never."

"I see." Dr. Suresh scribbled frantically in his notebook.

Chad peered at it. "Is that Hindi?"

"It's Tamil."

"Cool."

"You've stayed home sick before," Ryan accused.

"I fake it, just like every other kid." Chad waved his hand in a vague gesture.

"That is a strange theory, Doctor," Ryan said haltingly.

"What theory?" Chas asked eagerly.

"Some evolutionary thing that Gabriella would be able to understand."

Dr. Suresh looked a bit uncomfortable. "Not a theory, a hypothesis," he clarified. "Simply put, if you live forever, there must be a linked gene, some evolutionary failsafe in place to keep the species from reaching carrying capacity. This is assuming that the rapid cellular replication results in immortality."

"A failsafe like what?"

"Infertility, perhaps."

"He's not saying homosexuality, but he's thinking it."

"So you're saying I'm gay because I'm indestructible?"

"No, not at all!"

"So I'm indestructible because I'm gay?"

"No!"

"But what about Ryan? He was gay before he was indestructible."

"What �" what does that mean?" Dr. Suresh asked. "I thought he was a telepath."

"My sister is the telepath. I absorb other people's powers."

"Peter Petrelli," Dr. Suresh whispered.

"Who's that?" Chad asked.

"Peter Petrelli from New York City?" Ryan asked. "Has a brother Nathan and an overbearing mother and creepy father?"

"I know that he has a brother named Nathan," Dr. Suresh nodded. "Do you know them?"

"They're friends of the family." Ryan frowned. "Am I to understand that he can do what I can do?"

"From what I understand, yes."

"Cool. I bet he's all idealistic about it, probably thinking that he's going to save the world."

Dr. Suresh looked at Ryan and furrowed his brow. "How did you know?"

"He's always been like that."

"He's taken on a personal mission. About a cheerleader."

Ryan stared at him in incredulity. "A cheerleader?"

"I thought he was a lunatic," Dr. Suresh admitted.

"Oh, he is, but he's usually honest."

Gabriella returned, knocking on the door before entering.

"What'd I miss?" she asked cheerily.

"There are serial killers that want to kill people like me and the Evans. There are killer viruses that can kill only people like me and the Evans. Uh, the many ways I've been experimented on." Ryan coughed to hide a laugh. "That me being gay is connected to me being indestructible, and that Ryan's high and mighty family friends are crazy… Yeah, that's about it."

Gabriella looked at Chad in astonishment.

"You are homosexual?" Dr. Suresh asked gracelessly.

"Kinda."

"And you are from the well-to-do Evan's family?"

"Yes."

"You were not on the list."

"What list?"

"Before my father's death, he developed an algorithm using genetic migration patterns to find people with abilities. He was able to compile a list of approximately one hundred people with a certain genetic marker world-wide. The Petrelli's weren't on the list either. I found them later. It's a terrible coincidence."

"If you say so," Chad said nonchalantly.

"Them?" Ryan asked. "Meaning more than Peter?"

"Nathan also has… an ability."

"He can fly?"

"What other abilities have you demonstrated?" Dr. Suresh said quickly.

"I can read your mind, heal, persuade, and turn things to gold."

"May I see a demonstration?"

Ryan looked to Chad.

"Oh no, I am _not_ dancing again!"

He placed a hand over Chad's. "Sing the opening lines of 'La Vie Boheme.'"

Chad didn't question the request, just started belting out the lines he was told. Poorly. A few lines in, he realized what he was doing and clasped a hand over his mouth. He didn't even know that he knew the song, the lyrics just popped into his head, and he wasn't able to make them stop.

"That was uncalled for!" he growled through his fingers. "You know I can't sing!"

"That was a mistake on my part," Ryan said sweetly. "I should have asked Gabriella, but she would have done that without the extra persuasion."

"I hate you," Chad sulked. He mistakenly thought of the car ride to Albuquerque.

Ryan smirked but thankfully didn't say anything.

"Mr. Evans," Dr. Suresh said. "When did you first notice your abilities?"

"A few days ago. First was the persuasion, then the Midas Touch, and then the mind reading."

"Are you aware of the abilities as you absorb them?"

"No."

"How did you first realize your first ability?"

"I made my sister take out the trash."

"Seriously, dude?" Chas asked. "I can't imagine your sister taking out the trash."

"I can. Then I accidentally turned one of my hats to gold."

"Do you remember what you were thinking at the time?" Dr. Suresh prompted.

"I was thinking that the hat needed more flair."

"And the telepathy?"

"I heard Chad's thoughts about me." Ryan looked to Chad knowingly.

Chad shivered involuntarily.

"May I have a DNA sample from you as well?" Dr. Suresh asked earnestly.

"Sure," Ryan agreed.

Dr. Suresh dug out another swab and labeled it before handing it to Ryan.

Ryan did as Chad had done and handed the swab back to Dr. Suresh.

"Thank you. Do you know who the abilities you've acquired originally belonged to?"

"Just the telepathy. That's from my twin sister."

"Your sister exhibits a mental ability, you, Mr. Evans, exhibit an empathic ability, and you, Chad, exhibit a physical ability." Dr. Suresh wrote down a few notes.

"Yes," Chad drawled.

"May I see a demonstration of your third ability, Mr. Evans?"

"Sure. Gabriella, may I borrow one of your rings?"

Gabriella beamed at him and quickly removed one of her rings.

Ryan held it at arm's width so that Dr. Suresh would have no difficulty seeing the transformation.

"That was positively brilliant!"

"Thanks." Ryan handed Gabriella back her ring.

"I'm going to ask a few questions that have to do with gene flow. They are relevant, so don't be alarmed if they sound too personal."

"Gene flow?" Chad looked to Gabriella.

"How genes move from one population to anoth- How people move around the world."

"Ah. Go ahead, Dr. Suresh."

"Have you both lived in New Mexico your entire lives?"

"I have," Chad said.

"My family moved here from Rhode Island about five years ago," Ryan said. "And before that we lived in Connecticut near New York City."

"Excellent. Now, Chad, have your parents also lived in New Mexico for their lives?"

"Yeah, my Mom grew up in Santa Fe, and her Mom now lives here in Albuquerque. I have no idea where their countries of origin are, but I know somewhere along the line, someone came from somewhere in Africa."

"And your father?"

Chad's face closed off. "I never knew my father."

"I'm terribly sorry."

"It's not your fault. At least, that I know of."

"No," Dr. Suresh clipped, clearly humoring Chad. "And you, Mr. Evans?"

"My Mom grew up in L.A., and her parents were originally from Seattle. My Dad grew up on Long Island, and his parents were originally from the Upper East Side in Manhattan."

Chad looked at Ryan sarcastically. "That all?"

"No. My maternal great grandmothers were both from Poland. My maternal great grandfathers were from Sweden and Italy. My paternal great grandmothers were from St. Louis and Scotland, and my paternal great grandfathers were from Denmark and Toronto. They all met in the US, though. Is that it? Or do you want me to go further back?"

"The more data, the better." Dr. Suresh motioned for him to continue.

"The relatives from Europe were from there for as far as I can remember. My great grandmother from St. Louis - her mother was from England, and her father was Greek. My great grandfather from Toronto had a French mother and a Finnish father."

"That was most informative, thank you."

* - * - *

"That was really weird," Chad stated as they drove home.

"Surreal is the word you're looking for," Ryan said.

"Could he have talked in bigger words? And English isn't his only language!"

"The doctor has a Ph. D. Of course he's smart."

"Boys," Gabriella chided. "We need to go home before our mothers skin us alive for missing dinner. I don't want to end up in a car accident because you two are quarreling."

"No problem, Gabriella. I do find it odd that I've known the Petrelli's all my life and never knew about their abilities."

"Would you have believed them if it hadn't happened to you too?" Gabriella asked.

"Probably not."

"When I was talking to Troy, you said that I missed something about serial killers and killer viruses. What were you talking about?"

"There is a serial killer who is after people like me and Chad. He killed Mohinder's father - "

"Who?"

"Dr. Suresh's name is Mohinder. Sylar killed Chandra Suresh, and Sylar is killing people across the country by slicing their heads open and removing their brains."

Chad turned a shade of green that did not compliment his skin tone. "Dude! That's nasty!"

Ryan quirked an eyebrow. "At least I've never seen parts of my own brain."

"Hey! That was an accident."

"So," Gabriella said resolutely. "You need to watch out for a man named Sylar."

"Sylar's not his real name. That's an alias."

"Good thing we live out in the middle of nowhere," Chad declared. "That way he won't know we're there."

"He sticks to the small towns. There's less law enforcement there."

"Oh. That sucks. You are never leaving my side."

"Excuse me?"

"You'll know he's coming, 'cause you can read his mind."

"I'm not a personal translator," he said tightly.

"What about the virus?" Gabriella cut in.

"She's making a chemistry reference in her head - to buffers."

"Wha?" Chad asked.

"Never mind."

"The virus?" Gabriella pressed.

"It's a horrible, nasty virus that kills people with abilities. It's rare, and it only goes after us. It takes away a person's abilities before killing them."

Chad made a face.

"Mohinder doesn't know what the reservoir for the disease is."

"What does that mean?" Chad asked.

"It means he doesn't know what the main host of the virus is. What the virus can live in without killing."

"Oh. Is there a vaccine?"

"No."

"That sucks. Serial killers and killer viruses, and there's nothing to protect us from them."

"I think it's time that we come out to our families, so they will be more understanding of the situation," Ryan proposed.

"What?! I can't tell my Mom I'm gay! She'd freak!"

"Not that," Ryan rolled his eyes. "About your abilities."

"Oh. She'd freak out even more, then."

"Chad, your mother will understand whatever you tell her, and she loves you. Who knows, maybe she can do the same things you can."

"Fine. Actually, Ryan, you come with me, so I can tell her both. And you can tell me beforehand if she's gonna freak."

"I am _not_ a personal translator," Ryan growled.

"And it hurts every time I get hurt," Chad shot back.

"You do realize what you just said - Gabriella!" Ryan shouted, scandalized. "I never would have thought that something like _that_ would go through your head!"

"What?" Chad demanded. "What's she thinking about?"

"We need to address the sexual tension between us."

Chad blinked dramatically and his jaw dropped open. "What?!"

"What was the phrase you used? Ah, we need to top ourselves off."

Gabriella blushed fiercely. "I think it's time we set up some rules for your telepathy. Rule number one: don't read anyone's mind without permission. Rule two: don't read anyone's mind without permission even if they don't know you can read their mind."

Ryan gave her a bland look via the rearview mirror.

"And rule three: if you decide to break rules one and two, don't answer questions formed mentally _or_ share what you may have overheard with anyone else."

"You embarrassed Gabby, man," Chad accused. "That's not nice."

"I suppose I can abide by at least rule number three," Ryan relented.

They pulled into Gabriella's driveway.

"Thanks for coming with us, Gabby," Chad said as Gabriella climbed out of the car.

"It was fun. I just hope that my mother understands the skipping school part."

"Good luck," Ryan chipped in.

She smiled at them and walked through the front door of her house.

Ryan shifted the car into reverse, and he and Chad were off and not saying a word to one another.

"I really should tell my mother," Chad admitted, breaking the itchy silence. "About the gay thing and about the healing thing."

Ryan grunted non-communicatively as he nodded.

"Do you �" do you wanna give the dating thing a try? Or hook up or something?"

Ryan snorted.

"You know, it's not really fair that you know everything that's going on inside my head, but I can't even get a one word answer out of you."

"What do you want, Chad?" Ryan sighed resignedly.

"You've been in my head all day, and you don't know?"

"I'm really not that flexible. Actually, I don't think any human is," Ryan responded dryly.

They pulled into Chad's driveway.

Chad shifted uneasily in his seat.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Ryan asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Would you?" Chad sounded embarrassed.

Ryan leaned over and kissed him softly on the neck before biting down gently. His hand on Chad's thigh squeezed lightly.

A surprised gasp escaped Chad's mouth.

"Sure," Ryan whispered in his ear.

Ryan was almost to the front door when Chad snapped out of his daze.

"Hey, wait up!" He caught up to Ryan at the door and pushed it open, shouting, "Mom! I'm home! And I brought a… friend!"

"Where have you been?!" Echoed throughout the house. Chad's mother ran into the front hallway, and she was a woman on a mission. "I've been worried sick about you! The school called saying that you had just disappeared, and with all this news of a serial killer, I've been frantic! You could have called! Why didn't you call me?"

"Serial killer?" Chad looked to Ryan, who nodded. "Okay, uh, Mom, we have a lot to talk about. It'll explain everything about, well, everything. Um, can we go sit down in the kitchen or something?"

Ms. Danforth examined her son suspiciously before nodded. "This had better be a darn good story," she said in a dangerous tone.

"It will be," Chad said quickly as he ushered Ryan into his kitchen. He grabbed himself a glass of water and as an afterthought, grabbed one for Ryan too.

His mother was seated in a very confrontational position at the kitchen table. Ryan, the bastard, looked relaxed, which Chad should have taken to mean that his mother wasn't nearly as angry as she wanted him to think.

"By the way, this is Ryan Evans. Ryan, my Ma. Anyway. I've been having a sort of personal crisis this past month, and I really hope you won't freak out, 'cause I know I kinda did."

"Honey, you know that I'll support you no matter what decision you come to," his mother said.

"It's not that kind of crisis, Ma." He walked over to the knife drawer and pulled out a bread knife. "It's best if I demonstrated."

"What - Chad, what are you doing with that knife?"

Ryan smirked. "Don't worry, Ms. Danforth, he's not the serial killer."

"What?!" Chad exclaimed. "No! Why would you think that, Mom?!"

His mother furrowed her brow. "What _is_ going on?"

"Promise you won't freak?"

"Chad!"

"Alright! Fine." He cut his forearm with the knife.

"Chad! What the hell are you doing?!" She leapt up and tried to stop him.

"Relax, Ma." He tossed the knife into the sink and grabbed a paper towel.

"Don't you tell me to relax!" She grabbed his arm. "You're going to need stitches!"

"No, I'm not." He pressed the paper towel to his arm and sopped up the blood. "See? It's gone." He removed the paper towel from his arm.

His mother examined his arm. "What just happened?" She said. Her voice was razor sharp and low.

"I can heal. It's called rapid cellular regeneration."

She stared at his face and then his arm and back to his face. "This was your personal crisis?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you come to me, honey?"

"'Cause I'm a teenager?"

She pulled him into a hug. "Now, what were you doing when you cut school?"

"Aw, Ma!" Chad whined.

She went back to where she had originally been sitting.

"Fine. Ryan, Gabby, and I went downtown to meet with a doctor."

"Are you sick?"

"No! A doctor, a geneticist, from New York contacted me and wanted to meet. He studies people like me. It was kinda weird but also kinda cool."

"You're okay?"

"Yes, Mom," Chad said begrudgingly.

"Now, you've mentioned Ryan before, and you've mentioned Gabby before, but never in the same context."

Chad panicked. He had no idea if it would be okay to out Ryan to his mother.

"She's wondering what I'm doing here," Ryan whispered. "It's okay to out me."

"Dude, you are totally breaking rules one, two, _and_ three." Chad shook his head at Ryan.

Ryan glared at Chad.

"What rules?" Ms. Danforth asked.

"Ryan's like me. Uh, he can kinda read your mind."

"What?!" Ms. Danforth sat straight up in her chair.

"Please don't be alarmed, Ms. Danforth. It's… well, you know."

She pursed her lips together.

"Well, I don't," Chad said belligerently.

"Chad, honey," his mother sighed. "I should have told you this ages ago. I - let me show you."

She disappeared.

"Mom! What the f- heck?!"

"She's invisible," Ryan responded drolly.

She reappeared.

"Wow, Ma… Uh, this is new."

"I should have told you before, honey. I'm sorry."

Ryan frowned at her thoughtfully.

"That would have helped me with the crisis, yeah," Chad said slowly. "But, uh, there's more. It has to, um, do with our visit with Dr. Suresh today."

"She already knows," Ryan said as he examined his nails.

"What?! How could she know?! You know I'm gay?"

"I'm you're mother, Chad. And you're not gay; you're a four on the Kinsey scale."

"I don't understand." He shook his head.

"It means you like both men and women but lean towards men," Ryan explained.

"Oh… Hey! How do you know that?"

"I read," Ryan said haughtily.

Chad sneered at Ryan. "Thanks. Hey, wait a minute. No you don't. I've heard you read out loud in class. You totally suck at it!"

"I'm dyslexic, you simian, not retarded."

"So what number are you?" Chad challenged.

"Three. That means I'm open to both men and women. I don't lean towards one side or the other."

"Are you saying that I'm gayer than you?" Chad's mind reeled. That would be the ultimate punch in the gut: if Chad were gayer than someone as flamboyant as Ryan.

Ryan nodded arrogantly.

"Chad," his mother warned.

Chad heeded his mother's warning and changed the subject. "Hey, Mom, did my father know about all this?"

"No," she said darkly. She forced herself to brighten. "Now, Ryan. What are your intentions towards my son?"

Ryan whipped his head to Ms. Danforth in wide-eyed terror. "My intentions? Um. We haven't even begun to date formally. At this point, we just realized that we're stuck together for all eternity, and I think that may cause some tension."

"Eternity?"

"The whole healing thing means that I can't die," Chad said morosely.

"How do you know this?" His mother asked apprehensively.

"Dr. Suresh thinks that. And, well, I've been testing the healing thing."

"You've been putting yourself in danger?!"

"A couple times were accidents!"

"If you couldn't heal, you could have seriously hurt yourself, young man!"

"I know! I didn't do the tests until I was sure that I could heal."

"Except the first time," Ryan giggled.

"I don't want to talk about that."

"About what?" Ms. Danforth prompted in a tone Chad associated with an earned detention.

"How I found out I could heal. It's really embarrassing!"

"More embarrassing than that time I - "

"Mom!" Chad whined through clenched teeth.

Ryan held a hand over his mouth to cover a smile.

"I'm just saying."

"Yeah, it's more embarrassing than that."

"What did you do?"

"I tripped over my feet," Chad said sheepishly.

"That's it?" his mother asked incredulously.

"No, I, uh, kinda-sorta cracked open my skull."

"You did _what_?!"

"Sorry, Mom. It was an accident!"

"I really thought your coordination was better than that," she accused.

"It usually is!"

"Now, Ryan, how will _you_ be with my son for all eternity?"

"It's my twin sister who can read minds. I absorb other people's powers."

"You can heal like Chad?"

"Yeah. And if I put some thought into it, I could turn invisible."

"What? No fair!" Chad moaned. "So not only can you, like, read my mind, but you can also sneak up on me so that I don't know you're there, and I'll be thinking whatever thoughts I want, and you'll know!"

"This isn't all about you," Ryan said in a deadpan. He disappeared, and then reappeared. "That was really cool."

"I could see you, though," Ms. Danforth said.

"And I could see you when you were invisible," Ryan admitted.

"That's really creepy, guys."

Ryan smirked.

"Can Ryan stay for dinner?" Chad asked abruptly.

Ryan frowned.

"I don't see why not," Ms. Danforth consented.

"Let me see if that's okay with my sister."

"Not your mother or father?"

"They're both out of town on business."

Ryan dug his cell phone out of his pocket and waved it at the Danforths before heading into the other room to call his sister.

"Chad?" His mother asked. "I do wish that you had come to me earlier."

"Did you go to your mother?"

"Of course I did. My mother and I are close, and we always have been."

"Did you tell your father?"

"Oh, goodness, no!"

"See?"

Ryan returned. "Thanks for the offer, but I should return home. My sister's having problems."

"What? Did she break a nail or something?"

"No." Ryan ground the word out impatiently.

"I'll see you out," Chad said.

"Thank you for the dinner offer, Ms. Danforth." Ryan smiled cordially.

"You can come over for dinner any time," she smiled at him.

"Thanks, I look forward to it."

Chad opened the door for Ryan and walked out onto the front stoop with him.

"Are you going to tell Gabriella that she was right about your mother?"

"She already knows that she's right. She doesn't need me to tell her," Chad moaned.

"Do you really want to give us a try?" Ryan asked shyly.

"Why not?"

"Because we're going to be alive until the end of the world," Ryan supplied.

"Yeah, there's that."

"We have all eternity; there's no need to rush it."

"I kinda want to," Chad blushed.

"Now _that_, I am very capable of doing, but not with your mother inside."

"Can I have a kiss goodnight instead?"

"My, you're straightforward," Ryan teased.

"You'd know even if I tried to draw it out, so why bother?"

"Fair point."

Chad leaned in and kissed Ryan's pouty lips open-mouthed and sloppy. Ryan grabbed Chad's shoulders and squeezed before he pushed Chad away, biting his lower lip in the process.

"Ow! What is with you and biting?"

Ryan grinned wickedly. "You taste good. I do have to go, though. Shar is waiting for me."

"What's her crisis?"

"It's a twin thing. I gotta go."

Chad pulled him in for another kiss. "See you tomorrow."

And, because Ryan needed the last word, he said, "We can try _that_ later."

Chad watched as Ryan pulled away in his car and waited in the cool night air for something that would make the whole damn situation make sense. Of course for that he needed to talk to his mother. He was really dreading that part. She was on the other side of that door, and, hell, for all Chad knew she could be outside watching him… which would have been really creepy.

With a resolute sigh, Chad went inside.

"Mom!" he called.

"I'm still in the kitchen, honey!"

Chad dragged his feet on the way to the kitchen.

"When did you and Ryan become official?" she asked. "And why didn't you tell your mother?"

"We're still not official," Chad mumbled. He sat down at the table, where his mother had laid out dinner: leftover chicken from the night before, nothing fancy.

"You've been talking about him since the summer."

"I know, Ma, it's just… I don't know. This whole indestructible thing has me all out of sorts."

"I was your age when I learned about what I could do," she explained. "It took me a while to realize why everyone was ignoring me, but when I found out, I went straight to my mother."

"I understand what you're saying, Mom! Next time I'll come to you, okay?"

"Chad, this is really important."

"What?"

"You need to be careful who you speak with about this. There are people out there who _will_ hurt you." She tugged her collar away from her neck to reveal an ugly scar.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. When I was your age, I lost a couple of days of my memory and woke up at home with a killer headache and the scar. My mother said that I was missing for a couple of days, otherwise I wouldn't have known I was anywhere at all."

"You think that could happen to me?"

"I want you to be safe."

"When we spoke with Suresh today, he didn't mention anything about abducting people. He said some other things, though. He said something about the serial killer removing brains. This guy, like, takes the brains out of people who can do things like us. Which is still really nasty.

"Suresh also said that there was a virus out there that can take away our powers, and then kill us."

"Oh," his mother said, surprised. "A killer attacked and killed two girls in Texas last week. Their brains were missing."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, and before that he killed in LA. The news said that the killings were random, and whenever the police can't find a link, it usually has to do with us."

"So you knew that I was indestructible?" Chad accused.

"No, but I knew that you were special, just like me."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Chad, honey, there are so many reasons why you had to find out on your own."

He humphed and stared at his dinner.

"Now when are you going to make up the history exam you missed today?"

"Mom!"

"I'll write you a note so that you aren't penalized."

"Thanks," he muttered.

"But you have to promise to come to me with any more crises that you may have," she said sternly.

"Like what?" Chad demanded.

"I can turn invisible, not see the future," she said wryly.

"You sure your power isn't mistimed humor?"

"Don't talk back to your mother."

"Yes, Mom."

* - * - *

The hallways were empty, and Chad was late to homeroom after maybe having taken a bit of a detour to think evil things at Sharpay. He would never admit to it �" okay, he totally would - but it was a really cool way to torment her, and what was she going to say? "Stop thinking at me"?

Chad sniggered internally and then broke out in a heady grin. Ryan was in his homeroom.

There was a really, really tall guy blocking the hallway. Chad's grin dissolved: there was something off about him.

Chad turned a 180, quickly heading back the way he had come.

Another man with horn-rimmed glasses blocked the hallway on that end.

Chad panicked. He was too far away from both of the men to make a break for it: they would both be able to head him off, no matter which direction he went. There were no classrooms to duck into or doors at all in that stretch of hallway.

He practically shouted in his head for Ryan, for Sharpay, and even for those who he knew couldn't hear his thoughts but would come to his aid, like Troy and Zeke. He even internally shouted for Gabriella and Taylor.

Unfortunately no one responded to his silent pleas, and it didn't occur to Chad to scream with his voice not just his head. The two men had almost cornered him. With one last ditch effort, he tried to dodge underneath the man with the horn-rimmed glasses and out into the open hallway.

The tall man caught him and carried him out of the hallway with a large hand over Chad's mouth, which Chad bit.

The man didn't so much as loosen his grip on Chad; he just moved his hand so that the palm rested over Chad's mouth. Chad kicked and twisted, but he couldn't land a solid hit on either man. He broke a bone in his arm trying to squirm free.

It didn't heal, and it hurt.

The man with the horn-rimmed glasses approached him with a wry smile. "This one is going to give us some trouble." He took out a needle and jabbed it into Chad's thigh.

* - * - *

Chad woke up with his alarm clock and the worst headache he had ever had. In fact, it was the only headache he had ever had. He was in his own bed.

He stumbled out of his room with a hand on his forehead. "Hey, Mom! Can you call me in sick?"

There was a great thundering on the stairs, and his mother tackled him and wouldn't let go.

"Baby, baby, baby, my baby."

"Mom? What the hel- heck?"

"Chad, go lie down in bed."

He looked at her skeptically before heading back to his room.

She followed him, never letting her hands leave him.

"Ugh. I feel like I'm hung-over �" Not that I've even been hung-over before!" he added quickly.

"Honey?" His mother sat down on the bed next to him. "You've been missing for five days. I've spoken with the police and filled a Missing Persons Report."

"What?!" he shrieked and then winced. "No!" he said in a quieter tone. "That's impossible, Mom."

"They got to you too." She looked to be on the verge of crying, but she took Chad's collar and peeled it away from his shoulders. "No scar," she frowned.

"Well, duh. I heal."

"Go back to sleep. If I remember correctly, the headache lasts twenty-four hours. I'll call you in sick, and I'll also call your friends to let them know you're safe."

"You're awesome, Ma."

"I know, honey."

* - * - *

When Chad woke up again, there were eyes staring at him. There were several sets of eyes staring at him.

"Go 'way, eyes," he mumbled and turned over sleepily.

"Chad, you need to eat something." The voice didn't belong to his mother, but it was definitely female.

"You're not my mother," he muttered.

"Chad, you need to eat." That voice did belong to his mother.

He sat up. His motions were jerky as if he hadn't uses his muscles in years, and he propped his head on the headboard. "'S, Ma."

"Good boy." She handed him a plate with toast covered in strawberry jam and butter and a large glass of water. "This should help your headache."

Chad munched on his toast and tried not to think about how much his head hurt.

"I heard it all," a third voice said. This voice was male. Chad had to put effort into swinging his head. The voice belonged to Ryan.

"You hurt him," Gabriella said. There was nothing accusing in her tone.

"You were shouting so loud you gave me a nosebleed. You also gave Sharpay a nosebleed, which she will never forgive you for, especially since my nosebleed healed quickly and hers didn't."

"Sorry," Chad said, spraying crumbs onto his duvet. "Didn't mean to."

"He tried to send me out there," Troy continued. "But by the time I figured out what he was saying, you were gone. I'm sorry, man."

"What happened?" Chad asked. "I remember two men, and they injected me with something, and that's it."

"Those were the people I warned you about," his mother explained.

"Yeah, well, they suck," Chad sulked. "And isn't it illegal? You know, kidnapping?"

"Yes, they do suck, and they wouldn't still be around if they weren't clever enough to get away with kidnapping people," his mother said grimly.

Ryan was studying Chad intently.

"Guys, can I talk to Ryan alone?"

Gabriella smiled and dragged Troy from the room.

Ms. Danforth told Ryan, "Mind his headache" before she left as well.

"This isn't how I pictured being in you being in my room for the first time," Chad confessed blandly.

"I know," Ryan said. "I know exactly how you pictured it. And I've told you before, I'm not _that_ flexible."

"I'm sorry I made your nose bleed," Chad admitted sheepishly.

"I'm sorrier that Troy couldn't reach you in time."

"Are you okay now?"

"No. I have your headache."

"How do you know it's my headache and not your own?"

"I just do," Ryan insisted.

"Right. Has it really been five days?"

"Yeah."

"Did my Mom warn you about these guys while I was gone?"

"Yes. Sharpay and I both know to be on the lookout." Ryan gazed at Chad pensively. "It was weird, though. I could hear you screaming, but I couldn't hear anything from the men who attacked you. It's like you were abducted by ghosts."

"They were solid enough to kidnap me. I doubt they were ghosts," Chad scoffed.

"I'm not saying you were abducted _by_ ghosts. I said it was _like_ you were abducted by ghosts."

"My head's clearing up," Chad said, hoping to change the subject.

"I know," Ryan said cheekily.

"What are you planning to do about it?" Chad dared.

Ryan leaned over Chad, his lower ribs pressed into Chad's. His face was so close to Chad's. "I'm going to… let you rest." Ryan sat back up.

"What?!"

"You need to rest."

"I _so_ don't need to rest," Chad objected. He made to grab at Ryan's sweater, but Ryan ducked out of the way. "And you'd better not make me think that I do."

"Then you should realize it on your own."

"Fine," Chad grumbled. "But don't I get a goodnight kiss?"

Ryan sighed theatrically. "Okay, but just a kiss."

A grin split Chad's face as he pulled Ryan down and shoved his tongue into Ryan's slack mouth. Ryan made a surprised choked sound before he fought back. They waged war against each other, each pushing at the other to retreat, back down, and neither would consent to defeat.

Ryan tasted like rain and flying and a three-pointer from halfcourt, and he knew every move Chad was going to make and countered it forcibly, and Chad felt Ryan everywhere.

Chad's hands gripped Ryan's hips, tugging him forward. Chad's left hand crawled between Ryan's legs, and he was almost there when Ryan broke their contact and twisted away.

"No," he said firmly.

With a frustrated growl, Chad let go.

"Rest," Ryan said coldly.

Chad grumbled to himself as Ryan stood up and removed the dishes from Chad's bedside table.

"Don't be a child," Ryan said with a roll of his eyes. "Some day I will _fuck_ you into _that_ mattress," he continued huskily. He raked his eyes over Chad's body.

Chad released a shaky breath. "Promise?"

Ryan grinned and showed too many teeth. "Bet on it."  
* - * - *

Chad's mother and Troy were waiting for Chad when he woke up the next morning. They were sitting at the kitchen table and talking quietly to each other.

"Hey man, how're you feeling?" Troy asked.

Chad grunted at him and headed directly to the refrigerator. He dug out a package of deli ham before he paid attention to his mother and friend.

"Am I gonna hear from those people again? They aren't gonna drop by and ask me about my customer service experience or anything, are they?"

"No, just once," his mother said. "I think that they keep tabs on us, but they don't abduct a second time."

"Oh goody," Chad said sardonically. He dove back into the refrigerator and pulled out the orange juice.

"Is that really what you're having for breakfast?" Troy asked as he pulled out a packet of papers.

"Yeah. What are those?" Chad asked in trepidation.

"You missed school," Troy reminded him. "These are the assignments you missed."

"Not cool," he groused.

"Yeah, well." Troy shrugged as if he had nothing else to contribute. "It's time to head out."

"Are you my personal bodyguard?" Chad asked snidely. If his kidnappers had been kidnapping for as long as his mother had said, Troy wouldn't really make that much of a difference.

"Your Mom's idea," Troy said brightly.

Chad shot his mother a dark look. "Whatever, dude. Let's get this over with."

"Just so you're prepared, man," Troy said uneasily. "People are gonna be staring at you."

"What?! Why?!"

"You've been missing for five days. You were on the news and everything."

"For serious?" The corner of Chad's lips curled up in contempt.

"Yeah."

"School is gonna really suck," he moaned.

* - * - *

Other than an occasional look of pity in the hallway, Chad noticed nothing different in the attention he received.

"That's because Sharpay cowed them all into submission," Ryan explained, appearing next to Chad at his locker.

"Are you my bodyguard when Troy isn't around?" Chad said scornfully.

"I believe that was your idea before," Ryan said as he casually examined his fingernails.

Chad snorted. "Not like that."

"You also have the bonus of having my glorious self in your presence," Ryan reminded him. He leaned forward, making sure that no part of their bodies touched, and whispered hotly into Chad's ear, "I can do things that Troy will never be able to do."

Chad choked back a moan and tried to respond steadily. "Like read my mind." His voice cracked in the middle of "read."

Ryan leaned back and cocked an eyebrow. "And fly."

"Seriously? Since when?"

Ryan nodded and leaned back in. "That, and I am willing to - "

"Danforth!"

Ryan stood up straight and scowled as Sharpay stalked up to them.

"Danforth! You have done the unthinkable! There was blood all over my brand new white cotton Celina Tocca! I'll never be able to remove the stains. You owe me a new shirt," she demanded. She looked Chad up and down before groaning in disgust.

Ryan's scowl straightened out, and his lips became pouty once again.

Sharpay groaned again. "I suppose it really _wasn't_ your fault," she relented. "I was going to make you pay in horribly embarrassing ways, but you look worse than shit. I suppose I'll spare you _this_ time. For my brother's sake."

"You're so kind," Chad said in a deadpan.

The five minute warning bell rang.

Sharpay sniffed at them and headed off to homeroom.

"Take advantage of her temporary benevolence," Ryan advised as he dragged Chad by the shoulder.

"Why?"

"She's being generous. Go with it."

"Where are we going?"

"Homeroom."

"Cool. Hey, when are you gonna tell your parents about… you know?"

"Not soon," Ryan said quickly.

"Why not? I told my Mom."

"I don't think school is the best place to discuss this," Ryan warned.

"Why not?"

"Something sketchy's going on. I don't just mean with what happened to you. Well, it sort of has to do with that, but it's complicated."

"So… what does that mean?"

"My parents are involved with something less than legal."

"Yeah, well, which one turns things to gold?" Chad asked nonchalantly.

"Neither, but they know who does. They're involved with all that. They've known about it."

"How do _you_ know all that?"

Ryan pulled Chad to a stop and gently placed a forefinger and middle finger to each of Chad's temples. "How would I know all that?" He chuckled modestly.

"How about we skip homeroom and go somewh- "

"No. You've already missed enough school."

"You're like my Mom."

Ryan shook his head and tugged Chad in the direction of homeroom, where Troy and Gabriella were waiting. Gabriella had an annoyingly knowing smile on her face.

Ryan smirked at her, which Chad found even more annoying. "There. I've delivered you safe and sound." He placed a hand on the small of Chad's back.

"It's nice to have you back, Wildcat," Gabriella called to him.

The room burst into applause.

Chad's eyes grew wide, and he had no idea what to do or how to react. "Uh, thanks, guys."

Ryan gave Chad a shy smile as he took his seat.

"It's like I single-handedly won States," Chad whispered to him.

"You overcame all odds and came back to East," Ryan explained.

"I don't even know where I was or what happened to me."

"It doesn't matter," Gabriella said. "The point is that you returned."

Chad raised his eyebrows but was cut off from saying anything by the morning announcements.

Instead of saying anything else, he thought, "We need to talk later." at Ryan, who nodded in agreement.

* - * - *

"Okay, when I said "we," I meant you and me, not you, me, and _her_," Chad bemoaned. He dramatically flopped face first onto Ryan's disturbingly comfortable bed. It made him think of dirty things. Including the promise Ryan had made to him the other day.

"May I remind you that _she_ is one of the people you called for when you were being kidnapped," Sharpay sneered.

"Temporary insanity," Chad grumbled to himself and the duvet.

"Or were you expecting some sort of romantic rendezvous?" Sharpay wheedled.

Chad sneered at her even if she couldn't see it. He knew she would know it in her head at least, and that gave him some satisfaction. Of course, she would also know that he was blushing.

"Children," Ryan said sternly.

Chad raised himself onto his forearms. "You guys ready to let me in on what's going on?"

"Only if you behave like a normal human being," Sharpay cut in.

Ryan stood up and stomped out of his room.

"Great going," Chad sighed.

"I believe you played as much a part as I did," she said snippily.

"Yeah, whatever, let's go find him and apologize."

Sharpay studied him carefully. "Oh god, please tell me you're not in love with him!"

"Your brother is hot," Chad responded as he left the room. There was no way in hell that he was going to explain everything that was going on in his jumbled mind to Sharpay. Especially when she probably knew his mind better than him. He didn't want to know. He still hadn't come to terms with the immortality thing, and he felt that the possibility of falling in love was ten times as terrifying. Besides, he wasn't. He was just horny, and Ryan was doing nothing but teasing him.

Sharpay smirked at him knowingly but thankfully said nothing.

He and Sharpay found Ryan in the kitchen with a pint of Chunky Monkey.

The twins regarded each other pensively. Chad had a niggling suspicion they were communicating telepathically. It made him itch underneath his skin and the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

Feeling left out, Chad took the pint and helped himself to a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream. Hey, if they were going to ignore him, he might as well ignore them.

"Danforth, come with me," Sharpay ordered.

Chad raised his eyebrows and looked to Ryan who nodded.

With a shrug, he followed Sharpay into the next room.

"We are playing a ridiculous game," she told him. "Making Ryan choose between the two of us is hurting him."

"Um… That's really mature of you," Chad said inanely.

"I do not wish to harm my brother," she said resolutely.

"Neither do I."

"Then we shall call a truce."

"Okay."

"Good. Also, I should point out that if you and he live forever, you will always be there for each other, so _do not_ mess that up now. He's feeling bad enough because be won't be able to be there for _me_. He'll see me grow old and, God forbid, wrinkly. He'll see everyone he will ever love die. Except for you." Sharpay looked Chad directly in the eyes. "And you made him that way."

"Not on purpose," Chad mumbled self-depreciatingly.

"Your intent doesn't matter," she breezed on, holding a hand to Chad's face. "But do not make him choose when there is still a choice to make."

Chad stared at her slack jawed. His mind was still stuck on the "except for you" part.

"Don't think about it too intensely." Sharpay waved her hand vaguely. "You need to think about you right now. You have to deal with Ryan for all eternity. Whatever decision you make is gonna last forever, you know? So take your time trying to figure out what you're doing. Even if it's a hundred years from now."

"Um…" Chad said. His mind had ground to a halt. "Couldn't you just tell me?"

"Where would the fun be in that?"

"Um… does this mean we're cool?"

"No."

"What?"

"You need to earn it."

"Oh…kay…"

"Good. Now we have a truce and a very fragile boy in the kitchen to take care of."

"Fragile?"

"He's never had a friend before last summer."

"What? How is that possible?"

"She means that I'm her shadow."

Chad turned to see Ryan standing in the doorway stony-faced. Chad had no idea how to respond, but he assumed the twins were doing their freaky thing, so he didn't interrupt.

"Come, Chad." Sharpay grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him back into the kitchen.

Ryan followed silently. Maybe he was right; he did act like Sharpay's shadow.

"I _am_ my _own_ person," Ryan growled.

"Whoa." Chad frowned at Ryan. "Chill out, man. And you're breaking rule number three."

"Ryan?" Sharpay asked.

"I didn't say anything," he defended himself with wide eyes.

"I heard you, though."

"I didn't say �" Did you read _my_ thoughts?"

"No!" Chad paused. "Did I?"

"I didn't hear him," Sharpay volunteered. "Which is very strange these days."

"Did you put your thoughts in my head?" Chad was so confused. Of course, he was always in a state of perpetual confusion when he was around Ryan recently.

"You can project?" Sharpay asked. "Does that mean I can too?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ryan said modestly.

"Oh, of course you do," Sharpay snapped.

"Uh, guys, can we talk about what we came here to talk about? You know, before your parents come back?"

"They won't be back for a while. There was some company emergency in Texas," Ryan said helpfully. "Which is actually part of what we need to talk about."

"Okay," Chad said slowly.

Sharpay ushered both of the boys into the living room and coerced them onto a couch together.

"So," she chirped. "Apparently Mommy and Daddy's business doesn't exist."

"What?" Chad idly wondered if there was some cap to how many times he could be caught off guard in one day. "I thought they were CEOs of some weird paper company."

"They're not."

"They run the company that kidnapped you and people like us."

"What?!"

"Well, they don't exactly run it. They helped to found it."

"Are you guys fucking with me?"

Ryan looked Chad up and down, making his intentions very clear before Chad heard, "With, no. What I intend to do is - "

Chad's eyes were so wide that they threatened to dry out. "I thought you said you weren't that flexible?"

"Ryan!" Sharpay scoffed and wrinkled her nose. "You _can_ project! Couldn't you have projected something else? I don't wish to witness the gay porn wireless show."

Ryan blushed spectacularly. Chad did likewise.

With a nervous cough, Ryan continued. "That's the sketchy thing that's been going on. Our parents know about everything. They know that Shar and I will eventually show signs of our abilities, and they'll have to turn us in to be catalogued with everyone else."

"That's cruel, man. I'm sorry. Couldn't you just persuade them not to?"

"It's not that simple," Ryan shook his head sadly. "If the company knew that our parents were keeping us from them, there would be a lot of trouble �" and probably death."

"Death?!"

"This company flies below all radar: they're lawless," Sharpay explained.

"Our parents love us but not that much." Ryan's voice was still sad, and Chad found himself reacting to it. He wanted to make that tone disappear forever. Ryan should always be happy, never sad. And where the fuck had that idea come from?!

The smile Sharpay, the little bitch, directed at Chad was sugary sweet.

"There is also something strange happening in New York," Ryan went on.

"Define strange?"

"Some artist who can paint the future predicted that the city was going to explode."

"What?!"

"The bomb is Peter Petrelli," Sharpay added tonelessly. "Or that's what everyone believes."

"That's the guy like Ryan," Chad stated.

"Yes."

"And everyone thinks Peter's gonna blow up New York?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"That's what's causing most of the crisis."

"We have to stop him!" Chad declared.

"How do you suppose _we_ do that?" Sharpay asked wryly.

"Not you. Me and Ryan. Think about it. If we're indestructible, then we can contain him when he explodes!" Chad enthused.

"Wow… that's really selfless," Ryan breathed. "But becoming involved in something like that would - "

"It would give us something meaningful to do with these powers. We could be, like, heroes, man. You know, instead of, like, screwing with each other."

"Aw, but, baby, that's where the fun is," Sharpay cooed sarcastically.

Ryan shot his sister a dangerous look. "How do you suppose we go to New York? We would need to remain under this company's radar. I wouldn't be able to take my car or jet. We would - "

"You have a jet?!"

"That's unimportant," Ryan dismissed. "But we would have to miss school, and we couldn't let anyone outside this room know where we were going."

"You want me to lie to my mother?"

"These people have people who can read minds just like me and Shar," Ryan nodded.

"Couldn't you persuade my Mom to let us go?"

Ryan deliberated. "Possibly. If it would make it easier for us to leave."

"You're really considering this, Ryan?" Sharpay asked. "Think of the winter musical!"

"You'll be fine, Shar. And there will be no Broadway if New York explodes."

After a beat, Chad commented, "When should we leave?"

"It's rude to interrupt!" Sharpay snapped.

"Sorry. I didn't know I was interrupting anything."

Ryan sighed. "How do you feel about skipping school?"

"What's the point of going to school if we're going to be around forever? Seems kinda small in comparison."

"We'll leave on Saturday," Ryan announced resolutely.

"In two days?"

"Unless you can be packed by Friday night."

"Depends on how much I need to pack."

"Light. We can pay for things as we go. I have bottomless pockets. Are you gonna be okay, Shar?"

She looked at her brother with dead eyes.

Ryan nodded tightly.

"Uh," Chad said awkwardly. "I'm gonna head home now."

Ryan turned to Chad and stared at him intensely. "I'll drive you."

"Okay, um, that would be cool."

* - * - *

The car ride was tense. Chad knew that Ryan could hear all of the turmoil milling around in his head. It wasn't fair that Chad couldn't pry Ryan's head open and peer into his thoughts. He didn't even know why he had proposed going to New York to Ryan. It seemed like a bogus idea sprung from no base. But they were going to do it. They were going to try to keep New York from exploding. Ryan apparently knew the bomb, so how difficult could it be? Chad never thought he would ever use the phrase "knew the bomb" in perfect seriousness. He giggled to himself.

That seemed to break the tension, because Ryan started to giggle as well.

"I can't believe we're going to do this," Chad said. "It's like we're some kind of badass: skipping school, running away to New York - "

"Saving the world."

"Didn't Dr. Suresh say something about a cheerleader? Do we have to save her before we save the world?"

"I think Peter will have that covered," Ryan said with an indulgent smile.

"So he saves the cheerleader and celebrates by blowing up a huge city?"

"That's what the clairvoyant painter painted, and that's what my parents and their friends believe."

"What can your parents do?"

"My mother is where the persuasion came from, and my father can control water - like he can take the moisture out of the air or freeze water, stuff like that."

"That's cool. Do you know where your other powers came from?"

"Yes. My parent's friends - and coworkers."

"And we're really gonna go to New York on Friday night?"

"It's not too late to back out."

"I don't think I'd be able to. If that city, like, blows up and there was something I could do to stop it, I'd feel really guilty. Probably for the rest of my life - which is a very long time."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I feel like we're Batman and Robin or something."

"Neither of them could read minds or heal," Ryan pointed out.

"Fine. We're like Jean Grey and Wolverine. Ha! You're the girl!"

"Clever, Danforth," Ryan said blandly. "And who would my boyfriend be? As I recall, Jean Grey dated Cyclops not Wolverine."

"She could totally date Wolverine. Besides, I'm not as gruff as Wolverine, and your boobs aren't as big as Jean's."

Ryan looked down at his chest. "Good thing for that."

"I can't believe you even know who those people are."

"I'm in your head, Chad."

"Ugh, that's creepy."

They pulled into Chad's driveway.

"Do you want to come inside?" Chad asked nervously.

"No, thanks. I need to make some arrangements with Sharpay so that she's not blamed for my disappearance. I suggest you do similarly with your mother. You will not be taking your cell phone, because they can use it to track us."

"Wouldn't it be obvious that we're going to New York?"

"No. My parents don't know that Sharpay and I know anything about the company they work for."

"Can we bring Gabby in on this? She's really practical in situations like these."

Ryan gave a longsuffering sigh. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

"She wouldn't tell anyone if we asked her not to - not even Troy."

Ryan leaned over the gearshift and kissed Chad on the neck. "That's not a good idea."

"Okay," Chad agreed happily, not remembering why he thought it would be a good idea in the first place. He entertained ideas of Ryan climbing over the gearshift and into his lap.

"Not in your driveway."

"Man," Chad whined.

"I'll call you later tonight to let you know what plans Shar and I have made."

"Alright," Chad said sullenly. He awkwardly crawled out of the car.

Ryan waved goodbye as he left, and Chad had to bite his lip to keep the goofy smile off of his face. He didn't want his mother to accidentally catch him beaming and come to the wrong conclusions.

"Mom! I'm home!" he called as he slammed the front door behind him.

"Hi, honey! How was cross country practice?"

Chad followed her voice and found her in the living room sorting through papers that were probably important.

"I �" I skipped practice today," he confessed. "I went to hang out with the Evans."

"Really?" she intoned.

"Yeah. We had, like, stuff to talk about."

"'Like stuff'?" She repeated dryly.

"Yeah."

"I hope it was more important than your future with a three-season athlete scholarship."

Chad nodded vigorously, his curls obstructing his view. "Way more important. Plus, you're gonna get me into UNM anyway."

"My employment at the College of Pharmacy is _not_ going to get you accepted. It will give you a free ride, but you need to get into a program on your own. _And_ if you want to attend a college with a better basketball team, you'll need those scholarships."

"Relax, Ma. I'm applying to other schools. Like UCLA, Arizona, and North Carolina."

"I don't want you to throw away your future just because you think that you are going to live forever."

"I won't," Chad lied.

"Good boy, now how about you help me sort through these essays."

"I think I'll pass on that, but thanks for the offer."

"Chad, that wasn't a request."

"Fine," he grumbled and sat down next to his mother on the couch.

"They need to be sorted by topic," she explained. "Which should be listed in the title. If it's not, put it in a separate pile."

"Yeah," Chad breathed.

"Is something wrong?" His mother leaned back to examine her son carefully.

"Mom, I'm going to do something really stupid, and I know that you are gong to hate me for a long time, but I feel like it's the right thing to do. You said I should come to you with my problems, so don't freak out on me, okay?"

"I'm not going to rescind my offer, honey. Tell me what's wrong."

"New York City is gonna explode."

His mother pursed her lips. "How do you know this?"

"It's a long story, but it is. I want to be there to make sure that it doesn't. Ryan and I are indestructible, so I figured that we could help…"

"When are you going to do this?"

"As soon as possible."

"That is very selfless of you, honey."

"But?"

"But I can't have you putting yourself and someone else in danger as well as skipping school for something that may not even happen."

"It won't happen if Ryan and I stop it."

"No, Chad."

"Ryan and I are going to do it."

"Chad �" "

"Mom, I know you're worried about me getting into college, but missing weeks of school isn't going to do much in the scheme of things."

"Tell me how you are so sure that New York is going to explode."

"Ryan's parents are involved in the company that kidnapped us," Chad said softly. "They know that the city's gonna go boom, and they're just going to let it! The whole city would go. No more _Phantom_! Or Michal Crawford. Nothing."

"Chad this is not about New York: this is about you."

"Mom, I was not supposed to tell you all this. I was supposed to just go. I don't want you to worry or go to the wrong people."

"Do you feel the need to be a hero because you heal?" she asked seriously.

"No," he stated, matching her tone. "I feel that I could actually help because I can heal."

His mother exhaled abruptly and placed a hand over her mouth in helplessness. "This situation wasn't exactly in the parenting handbook."

"Ryan is gonna be really mad at me for telling you. He's gonna want to mess with your mind so that you would forget or something. Hopefully he'll leave the part where you know I'm safe… just not where I am."

His mother gave him a distressed look.

"I'll send out all of my applications tomorrow so you don't have to worry about colleges, okay, Mom?"

"I'm not worried about colleges. I'm worried about you dying!" she shouted desperately.

"I can't die, Ma," Chad said, a little sadly.

Chad's cell phone rang, and the display told him that it was Troy calling.

He stepped out of the room and opened his phone. "Hey man, what's up?"

"Hey… Uh, Ryan just called me. And he said some weird things."

Chad frowned. "Why would Ryan call you?"

"He kept babbling about his parents and his sister."

"About what?"

"I don't know, man, but you should call him. He seemed really out of it."

"Okay. I'll do it now."

"Good luck."

"Thanks." Chad hung up on Troy and immediately called Ryan.

"This is Ryan," he announced in a clipped tone.

"Ryan, it's Chad. Are you okay, dude?"

"Yes."

"Really? 'Cause Troy just called me and said that you called him, and you babbled about your parents and sister."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Ryan, c'mon. What's going on?"

"Nothing. Everything's fine."

"Then why did you call Troy?"

"I - I don't know."

"Um… maybe you'd better come over. You don't sound like you should be by yourself."

"Shar is here. I'm fine." He sounded like he was trying to fight a panic attack.

"Ryan, you're worrying me."

"My parents just pulled into the driveway. I need to go."

"Ryan!"

Chad was answered by a dial tone. He growled at it and went back to his mother.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"No. Ryan went all schizo on Troy and then on me."

"Is he regretting your decision to go to New York?"

"I don't think so. Lately it's been like he has a spilt personality. One moment he's one person - all poised and adult, and the next it's like he's a five-year-old hiding under his bed from the monsters - all insecure and stuff."

"He's a teenager, Chad. Just like you. That's what teenagers do. I recall you doing that several times last year."

"I mean lately like the past two weeks. That's it. He's never acted like this before."

"I'm sure everything's fine, honey. Now help me sort through these papers."

* - * - *

Ryan called Chad back around 10:30. Chad had been throwing some clothes into an old duffle bag but was otherwise bored out of his mind, and there was no way that he would resort to doing schoolwork after 10 at night.

"Hey. You feeling better?" Chad asked.

"A little." Chad could imagine Ryan's coy little half smile.

"Good. So what was that all about?"

"I panicked."

"About what?"

"Everything."

"So you called Troy?" Chad asked incredulously.

"A momentary lapse of judgment, I assure you. Not likely to be repeated."

Chad chuckled lightly. "You sure you're okay now?"

"Are you ready to leave tomorrow night?"

"Kinda. I'm in the middle of packing. How much stuff should I bring?"

"A couple of days worth at least. We're driving across the county: that's three days both ways."

"We're driving?"

"Yeah. Shar's gonna drive us to the bus station. From there we'll take a bus to Denver, and we'll rent a car there."

"You have this really planned out."

"Yes. I've even researched the names of a few pawn shops in Denver so that we can earn some cash to spend. We won't be using credit cards. Those are traceable."

"Okay," Chad said dumbly. "Why aren't we flying?"

"We're trying not to be traced here," Ryan said flatly.

"Okay. We're leaving Friday night?"

"Yeah. Is there a problem with that?"

"I'm having second thoughts. This whole thing is overwhelming, you know? I feel like I should live a normal life, and then I realize I can't. I want to spend time with my mother. I want to spend time with my friends."

"And you want to save New York City from exploding."

"I do. I really do. I just - Forever is a long time."

"Yes it is," Ryan agreed.

"I feel like I'm abandoning them."

"We'll be gone a maximum of two weeks."

"You have a date for the explosion?"

"The day after the Congressional election."

"When's that?"

"The first Tuesday of November. Same as all national elections."

"Really?"

"Did you not pay attention in Civics class?"

"No, not really."

Ryan sighed.

"I also feel like I might be messing up my chances with college if I miss that much school and sports stuff."

"How does that matter if you're going to live forever?"

"It matters to me and my mother. Have you thought about what you're going to do when you've been on stage for fifty years and everyone notices that you haven't aged a day over thirty?"

"I have a while until I have to deal with that. I don't have a while to deal with you backing out. Are you?"

"It'll only take two weeks?"

"Yes."

"I'm going to miss homecoming."

"You'll survive."

"I liked homecoming last year," Chad said suggestively.

Ryan snorted.

"Okay. I'm not going to back out."

"Good. The last bus to Denver leaves at 10:30. We'll arrive at 6 in the morning. The rental car places should be open by then. We'll pick you up at 9 tomorrow night."

"Hey, Ryan?" Chad interrupted.

"Yes?"

"Thanks for doing this."

"It was your idea."

"Yeah, but you're actually making it work."

"This could be fun."

"Yeah, but it could also be dangerous. Are you sure that you're indestructible?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

"Okay. I don't want you to get hurt."

"You too," Ryan whispered. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Night, man."

"Good night, Chad."

Chad hung up and flopped backwards onto his bed. He had a few more things to stuff into his bag and college applications to finish, and then he could catch some sleep. And maybe he should have told Ryan that he told his mother. Oops.

* - * - *

"You did what?!" Ryan shrieked. Chad winced.

"I told my Mom," he repeated.

"That was very stupid," Ryan glowered.

"My Mom has a right to know. I mean, I was recently kidnapped."

"That was very stupid," Ryan repeated.

The bell rang.

"I also told her that you would probably make her forget."

"I don't know _how_ to make her forget."

"Ryan, Chad, is there something you wish to share with the class?" Mr. Harris, their physics teacher, asked.

"No, sir," Ryan said quickly. He continued to glower at Chad, and Chad heard, "We're going to talk about this later."

"You sure you don't want to tell the whole class?" Chad asked Ryan in his head.

Ryan sneered at him.

Chad started to pay attention to the lecture about something having to do with something. He didn't know. It was something science-y that Gabriella would babble about later, and it wouldn't matter. He and Ryan were leaving tonight. Physics didn't matter. Actually, nothing academic mattered.

Chad felt a hand ghost up his thigh. There was no one around him. The classroom was set up with the desks in rows. Ryan was more than an arm's length away, and Troy was on the other side of him.

He frowned as he felt a hand on his other thigh, and he squirmed as subtlety as he could. His shoulders started to twitch when both ghost hands met up over his crotch, and a bead of sweat formed between his shoulder blades.

Mr. Harris gave Chad a disapproving look when he gasped loudly enough to interrupt the lecture.

The pressure of the ghost hands increased, and Chad released a shaky breath before pursing his lips together, and his nostrils flared with each rapid breath.

One of the ghost hands was doing things to his stomach that Ryan had done in the locker room over the summer. Chad remembered _that_ move.

He should have realized it earlier.

"Stop teasing," Chad thought at Ryan.

"I _could_ follow through right here," Chad heard.

"Don't you dare," Chad hissed out loud.

"Chad," Mr. Harris called out. "See me after class."

"You have detention on Monday," Ryan taunted in Chad's head. "Because you're so disruptive."

"You are _so_ dead, Evans," Chad growled mentally.

"Maybe next time you'll listen to me," Ryan projected loftily. "Besides, we're not going to be here on Monday."

Sharpay raised her hand.

"Yes, Sharpay?"

"I need a break. May I go to the bathroom?" She shot Chad a poisonous look.

"Of course," Mr. Harris granted.

As Sharpay passed Chad's desk, she dropped a note.

Chad waited until Mr. Harris had returned to his lecture before opening it. It read "Stop broadcasting your porn. It's rude." It was written in pink, loopy letters and unsigned.

Sharpay left the room because Ryan wouldn't stop teasing Chad. How was that his fault?

Wait. Was Sharpay embarrassed by what Ryan was doing and giving them privacy? That was almost… nice. Well, except the part where they were still in the middle of class. If anyone else knew what was going on -

Chad turned to Troy, who looked like his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. He had a note with pink, loopy letters on it.

"Dude," Troy whispered. He handed Chad the note.

It read: "Tell your boy to keep his perverted thoughts away from my brother. It's tactless."

Chad groaned as he dropped his head to his desk and didn't lift it until the bell rang, even when prompted by Mr. Harris.

"Chad," Mr. Harris intoned. "A moment."

Chad reluctantly pried his head up from his desk. "I know: you're going to give me detention."

"No. I'm not. I'm going to give you a warning. Next time I will give you a detention."

"Oh, thank God," Chad breathed, and darted from the room.

Troy caught him as Chad ran through the door. Chad groaned to himself. Dealing with Troy would be worse than dealing with a detention he was never going to serve.

"What was Sharpay's note about?"

"You really don't want me to answer that," Chad pleaded. "You should not be this interested in my sex life!"

A couple of heads turned their way but most people in the busy hallway ignored the outburst.

"I'm wondering if you're okay."

"No! I want my life to go back to the way it was two months ago!"

"Can Ryan bend space and time yet?" Troy offered.

"What do you mean?" Chad demanded. "You - there's - you _can't_!"

"No," Troy frowned in confusion. "But that's the only way you could go back to two months ago."

Chad released a frustrated growl. "I'm going to lunch."

* - * - *

Chad crashed face first into the couch in his living room. The day had sucked. Ryan was constantly groping him from across the room, which normally would not have been so bad - if it hadn't been in school. Chad ended up in the bathroom half an hour into each class he had with Ryan. He was going to pay the conniving bastard back. After all, they had a three day trip across the country with no one but each other for company.

He was glad that his mother wasn't home yet. Her last Friday class ended at 4, so she wouldn't be home until 5, and that gave him four hours with his mother until Ryan picked him up. Chad had no idea how to fill that time; although, he was content to spend it face down on the couch.

The doorbell rang.

Chad ignored it.

The doorbell rang again.

Chad ignored it.

Someone started banging on the door.

Chad ignored it.

The door slammed open, and Chad jumped up off the couch.

"Chad! Why wouldn't you answer the door?" Tory shouted.

"Go away!" Chad shouted back.

Troy entered the living room. "What's wrong, man?"

"I don't feel like socializing."

"Unless it's with Ryan, like, in your head," Troy said bitterly.

"Dude, so don't go there."

"What is going on with the two of you?" Troy sat down next to Chad on the couch.

"We're about to something incredibly stupid," Chad admitted.

"Like practically having sex in the middle of class?" Troy teased.

"No, stupider than that." Chad buried his head in his hands.

"I'm worried about you, man. You can tell me anything."

"No I can't," Chad muttered dejectedly.

"What do you mean?"

"It's best if no one knows what we're going to do."

"How can you say that?"

"To protect you."

"Fine. If you don't want to tell me, I'll leave."

"Don't go, Troy. I - Damn it!"

"Chad?"

"I'm really stupid."

"Why are you doing this to yourself? I've never seen you so spastic before. Not even when you found out you were indestructible."

"No, I'd say it's about equal."

"Whatever. The point is that you're freaking out about something, and I want to help."

"It's not like that, Troy. It's like - I don't know. How would you deal with the idea that you'd live forever, no matter how many times you were mortally wounded?"

"I dunno." Tory shrugged.

"Would you want to do some good in the world?"

"Like end world hunger or stop genocide in, like, Darfur?"

"Yeah, stuff like that."

"I guess. Why? Do you feel that you have a higher calling than playing for the NBA?"

"I haven't thought about playing for the NBA since, like, sixth grade," Chad confided.

"Are you gonna give up on it?"

"Maybe. I mean, what's gonna happen when I've been playing for, like, fifty years and I still look thirty?"

Troy shrugged.

"I kinda feel like I should be involved in something a bit more - I don't know - worthwhile."

"You're gonna need to talk to Gabs about all this. She's good on the bigger picture thing."

"I figured as much."

"C'mon, let's do a little one-on-one to get your mind off of whatever stupid thing you think you're gonna do."

The idea of losing himself in a game of basketball was a welcomed one. "Let's do it."

* - * - *

Ms. Danforth returned home to find her son and Troy lying on their backs in the backyard. They were both staring at the sky not talking to each other.

"I'm home, boys," she announced. "Troy, do you want to stay for dinner?"

"That would be awesome, Ms. Danforth," Troy beamed.

"Excellent. I'm ordering a pizza. What would you boys like on it?"

"Meat!" they exclaimed together.

"How about a Hawaiian pizza? That way you boys also have a serving of fruit."

"Sure, Ma," he said nonchalantly. Chad had an unhealthy obsession with Hawaiian pizza… with the salty and the sweet. It was like his tongue orgasmed every time he ate it. It made no sense as to why his mother would order it when she knew that Chad was leaving her that night. He did intend to return, but he was still leaving her on her own for the first time in seventeen years.

It had always been the two of them, and he felt like he was abandoning her, yet here she was, being nice to him.

"You boys have half an hour before the pizza arrives. I suggest you let your parents know where you are, Troy."

"Yes, ma'am!" He pulled out his cell phone and called his parents.

Chad stared at his mother imploringly. "Is this my last meal?"

His mother nodded. "You have my permission," she responded.

Chad sprang to his feet and hugged his mother, kissing her on the cheek. "Thanks, Mom!"

"Did I miss something here?" Troy asked.

"Nothing. Other than my mother is the most fantastic woman in the world!" Chad crowed.

Troy drew his eyebrows together. "What's going on?"

"It's pizza, Troy. You boys enjoy watching the clouds. I'll go order." Ms. Danforth went back into the house.

"What is going on, man? Is this what you were sulking about earlier?"

"Yeah."

"You gonna tell me eventually."

"You'll know tomorrow. Don't worry about it."

"You wanna go to a movie tonight or something?"

"Nah, I'm gonna hang out with Ryan tonight."

Troy chuckled. "You guys did have enough foreplay this afternoon."

"Ugh!" Chad groaned empathetically. "Don't remind me. Today was the most embarrassing day ever."

"More embarrassing than when your Mom - "

"_How_ do you even know about _that_?" Chad screeched.

"Your Mom told me," Troy divulged smugly.

"That traitor!"

* - * - *

Chad had convinced Troy to take Gabriella out to a movie at around 8, giving him an hour with his mother before Ryan showed up.

They didn't say anything to each other the entire hour. They just sat next to each other.

At five of 9, Chad said, "I'll send you a postcard from New York."

"You'd better."

"I'm sorry I'm doing this to you, Ma."

"The summer before college, my friends and I went on a road trip. My mother hated it. She didn't want me to go, but my father convinced her to let me."

"We'll be back in two weeks. Safe and sound."

"Don't make me regret this."

"You'll be happy for a chance to grade papers without me interrupting."

The doorbell rang, and Chad leapt up to answer it. He gave Ryan a quick kiss on the lips before he turned around to hug his mother and grab his bag.

"Don't make her forget," Chad begged.

"I don't know how," Ryan sighed.

Chad's mother looked to Ryan. "You keep my son safe."

"I intend to, Ms. Danforth," he said, tipping his hat.

Sharpay honked the horn. Chad had to bite his lip to keep from sniggering at the car's very girly yet assertive horn.

"Shar's idea," Ryan supplied.

"I believe you," Chad scoffed. "Bye, Mom." He gave her a tight hug.

Sharpay honked the horn again.

"We'd better go," Ryan said. "Take care, Ms. Danforth."

"Be safe. I expect both of you back in two weeks for a huge home cooked dinner."

"Ham?" Chad asked eagerly.

"Ham and mashed potatoes."

"You _are_ the most awesome Mom ever!"

"Bye, Ms. Danforth."

"Bye, Mom!"

Ryan led Chad into the car and put his bag into the trunk. Ryan took shotgun, and Chad sat behind him.

"What took you guys so long?" Sharpay scoffed as she pulled out of the driveway.

Chad opened his mouth to say something foul, but Ryan cut him off. "We have plenty of time to make it to the bus station."

"I want to be back in time to make it to a party that starts at 10."

"Your party," Ryan grumbled.

Sharpay shrugged. "The house is empty for an undetermined amount of time. I'm taking advantage of a prime opportunity."

"Your parents are gone again?" Chad asked.

"Another company emergency," Ryan said sarcastically. "In Vegas this time. Someone stole a sword belonging to someone important. Of course, that's not what they told us."

"Someone stole a sword?"

"Yeah. A Japanese sword that belonged to some guy named Adam Monroe or Takezo Kensei. They kept switching names, so I don't know which person the sword belonged to."

"Wouldn't the _Japanese_ sword belong to the guy with the _Japanese_ name?"

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Ryan said, and although Chad couldn't see his face, he knew Ryan was smirking, and he wanted to force that smirk off Ryan's face… especially if it involved Chad's own face in some way, particularly his lips.

"Ugh!" Sharpay snarled in frustration. "No projecting porn while I'm driving!"

Ryan smirked at her before he turned back to face Chad. "When we return, our thoughts need to be a thousand times more graphic around her."

Chad smirked. "Hell, yeah!"

"Oh, no!" Sharpay waved a hand around. "I will end both of you if you do, and when you come back to life, I will end you again and again, until it sticks."

"She's so nice," Chad deadpanned.

"Oh, shut it," she snapped.

Chad did as he was told, but he kept thinking dirty things at Ryan just to rile her up.

It worked.

* - * - *

Sharpay dropped them off in front of the bus station and didn't even wait for them to enter the building before she took off.

"That was almost nice of her," Chad remarked.

Ryan hummed in agreement. "Let me handle the ticket thing."

"Sure, man." After all, Ryan was the one who had the money.

Nine hours later they were in Denver, and Chad had a major crick in his neck from sleeping upright. Ryan had slept with his head on Chad's lap and his legs across the aisle, so he woke up relaxed, unlike Chad who vowed retribution. Which would probably consist of him sleeping in the backseat of whatever car they chose while Ryan drove.

The car rental place was indeed open when they arrived. Chad decided that Ryan should be in charge of that process… mostly because neither of them were old enough to rent a car, and Ryan could convince anyone that they were old enough and that they should have an awesome car without giving a credit car number.

From what Chad could tell, Ryan charmed the girl behind the counter, and that was it. There were no arguments or calls to the authorities. Ryan just walked away with a set of keys and a devious smile.

"What car do we have?" Chas asked as they wandered the parking lot.

"Viper," Ryan shrugged.

"A Viper!?"

"Well, the Roadster was out."

"We're gonna drive a Viper cross country?"

"Yeah. Did you want a Ferrari instead?"

"A Ferrari?! Seriously? That was an option?"

"No," Ryan chortled.

"Oh."

"Wait until you see this car, though." Ryan winked and pointed.

He pointed to a brand, shiny new Viper Convertible. It was a brick red, and Chad was in love… he didn't know if it was with the car or the person who chose the car, so he went with the car.

Chad ran his fingers along the hood with a dreamy expression on his face.

"Do you two need a moment alone?" Ryan asked with an amused smile.

Chad snapped out of his daze. "If we had sex in that car, it would be like a threesome."

Ryan choked. "Excuse me?"

"You saying you don't want sex in the Viper?" Chad raised his eyebrows.

"That wasn't my first choice, no."

"Really? I - oh!" Realization dawned on him.

Ryan popped the trunk. "C'mon, we need to find a pawn shop and then hit the road."

* - * - *

The pawn shop was closed when they arrived and not set to open for another hour, so they went to a diner for breakfast. Chad really enjoyed the idea of bottomless pockets, especially when those pockets weren't his.

He was on his third plate of homefries when Ryan announced that they needed to leave.

Chad gave him a confused look through a mouthful of potatoes.

"Trust me, we need to go." He threw a twenty down on the table and grabbed Chad by the arm. "Now."

Chad barely had time to collect his thoughts before Ryan shoved him into the Viper, and they were off.

"What the hell was that?" Chad demanded.

"That was us leaving before one of the many government officials in that diner recognized me."

"Government officials," Chad repeated inanely.

"Yes."

"Why? It's Denver, not D.C.!"

"There's an air force base in Colorado Springs. They were on leave."

"Um… I don't know if I'm gonna like the answer to this, but why would they recognize you?"

"My parents."

"Uh-huh. But what does that mean?"

"You're not going to like the answer, so I'm not going to answer that."

"Now I want to know." Chad crossed his arms over his chest petulantly.

"Don't act like a child." Ryan pulled up in front of a pawn shop. "Now it's time for me to earn my keep."

Through the sideview mirror, Chad watched Ryan sort through a bag in the trunk.

"Are you coming?" Ryan asked with a raised eyebrow.

Chad jumped out of the car and joined Ryan as he swaggered into the pawn shop. Chad wanted to watch Ryan haggle.

The girl behind the counter eyed them warily as she popped her gum.

Ryan smiled his most dazzling at her. "Hi. We need some fast cash. Do you appraise?"

"Yeah," she said. "What'd'a ya got?"

He dug a few items out of his pocket and dumped them on the counter in front of her. It was all jewelry. Chad recognized some of them as belonging to Sharpay, except they weren't gold when she owned them. In fact, Chad had a suspicion that they were once plastic.

"They were," Ryan answered in his head. Out loud he said, "They're all 24 karat."

The girl inspected them carefully with her eyes and then with her hands, testing for malleability, Chad assumed, and finally weighed them. "I can give you twenty-five hundred."

"Make it thirty," Ryan said. His voice was deep and commanding and gave Chad shivers.

"Sure. I need to open the safe in the back. Give me a sec."

When she left the room, Chad asked, "Did you go Jedi Mind Trick on her?"

Ryan blinked. "I think I just did."

"Cool."

She returned and handed Ryan three thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills.

"Thanks, Kelly," Ryan said with a charming grin.

"Do I know you?" she asked, frowning.

"No," Ryan answered. "We're not the droids you're looking for."

Chad looked to Ryan in awe. "I think I kinda love you," he blurted.

The girl was beyond confused.

"Have a nice day," Ryan said amiably as he shoved Chad out the door.

When they were safely in the Viper, Ryan was excited. "I was only expecting two thousand."

"I have never seen so much money," Chad said naively.

"You get half of it. Well, it's ours." Ryan shoved the money into his pocket and pulled onto the street. "Let's get out of the city before we put it in the trunk."

"Do you know where we're going?"

"I want to make it to Lincoln, Nebraska tonight."

"How far away is that?"

"About six or seven hours."

"Cool."

They lapsed into a silence that was broken when Chad announced his need for a bathroom.

Ryan pulled into an empty rest stop along I76, and Chad bounded into the bathroom.

Ryan was leaning a hip against the car when Chad returned.

"Uh, hi?" Chad ventured as his mind slid into the gutter. He intensively watched Ryan's hips wondering how many ways those hips moved and the extent of Ryan's flexibility. He had seen Ryan's hips move when dancing, and…

"Hey," he said in a sultry voice.

"Uh," Chad repeated.

Ryan smiled at him coyly.

"I thought we needed to go to New York, you know, quickly."

"You did want a threesome with the car."

"Now?" Chad squeaked.

"Why not?"

"Uh - I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I kinda want to do this properly. I mean, we've done this in, like, well… those other times, and I… want to do this properly," he repeated resolutely.

Ryan raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"Dude!" Chad protested. "I really want to - Ack! If New York doesn't explode, let's go home on 66. It's warmer than here."

Ryan smiled at him. Something in Chad melted, and he practically mauled Ryan, pressing him against the hood of the car. Chad sucked Ryan's bottom lip into his mouth as he planted his hands firmly on the hood of the Viper, his elbows locking Ryan's waist in place. Ryan's hat fell back onto the hood of the car.

Ryan groaned appreciatively as Chad's hips bore down on his, and he growled in bereft when Chad sprang off of him as another car pulled into the rest stop.

"Not the exhibitionist type?" Ryan teased as he put his hat back on.

Chad shook his head slowly, and all he could think about was how red and swollen Ryan's lips were and how Chad had done that to them, and he damn well wanted to do it again.

"You'll have your chance," Ryan assured him. "We have all eternity."

Chad stared at him blankly.

"Would you like to drive?" Ryan held out the key.

Chad's eyes grew wide, and he stared to salivate. "Really?" he choked out, grabbing the keys before Ryan could change his mind.

"Yeah. Just don't wet the seats."

"I won't. I already took care of that." Chad smirked at Ryan as he slid into the driver's seat.

"Charming."

* - * - *

The conversation went from nonexistent to Chad being paranoid about what Ryan picked up from his thoughts. He didn't know how to talk to Ryan. Well, he knew how, he just didn't know how to go about it. Ryan confused him. He was sexy as hell, and his pouty lips made Chad think of all sorts of inappropriate things. But inappropriate things didn't stimulate _conversation_.

It wasn't fair that Ryan knew everything about Chad, even those things that he didn't want _anyone_ to know, but Chad knew next to nothing about Ryan - other the obvious. How did someone bring up something like that?

Of course, Ryan heard that, so that would be as good an introduction as any. Except that Ryan was shy… at least what Chad categorized as shy. He compared Ryan's personality to Sharpay's, so he wasn't exactly shy, just overshadowed by his sister.

"Do you remember Peter Pan?" Ryan asked abruptly.

"Never Never Land? Like that Peter Pan?"

Ryan nodded. "Peter Pan loses his shadow when it's shut in a window and has a heck of a time trying to get it to do what he wants. And once he catches it again, Wendy has to sew it onto him."

"I don't get what you're saying. Your metaphor or whatever you're going for."

"When Wendy sews it on him, he takes all the credit for reuniting his shadow and his body. And life goes on as usual before the shadow rebelled."

"You're saying Sharpay is Peter Pan?" Chad gaped at him.

Ryan nodded. "Sharpay is Peter Pan, in all of his boastful glory."

"And you're the shadow?"

Ryan nodded again.

"So that's what you were talking about when she said that stuff the other day?"

"Sharpay rarely lies."

"That's a depressing thought."

"How so?"

"It's just… You're in my head, you know."

Ryan shrugged. "You were the one craving conversation."

"Among other things," Chad muttered.

Ryan cleared his throat. "Yes, well."

"I think we should address the sexual tension between us," Chad announced resolutely.

Ryan smirked. "You've been working on that line since we were in the bus station in Albuquerque."

"So?"

"It still needs work."

"Will we?"

"We will."

"Before I explode?"

"Peter is the one who's going to explode."

"Different kind."

"I don't know: Peter is hot."

"Really?"

"Yeah. If you're into that kinda thing."

"What kind of thing?"

"The - well, he - the last time I saw him he had horrible emo hair."

"Sounds dreamy," Chad appraised dryly.

"His brother Nathan is hotter."

"Hotter than me?"

"There's no need to be insecure. Nathan's married and has two boys."

"Wait. How old is Peter?"

"About thirty or so."

"And Nathan?"

"Dunno. Almost forty."

"You go for the older guys?"

"You take one look at Nathan and tell me he's not hot."

"Is this something like how every woman alive finds Sean Connery sexy?"

"Something like that," Ryan laughed.

"Tell me more about those brothers."

"They're very Italian, which is their word for handsy."

"What does that mean?"

"It means they're a step away from incest."

"Ew!"

"They are very tactile."

"Oh."

"Nathan's running for Congress. Peter, last I heard, was a hospice nurse."

"A hospice nurse?"

"He wants to save the world."

"One old person at a time?"

"He's always been odd."

"And now he's saving a cheerleader."

"That's what he told Mohinder."

"Who?"

"Dr. Suresh."

"Oh."

Chad stared out the window. Somewhere in the past few hours, the mountains had turned to corn fields. The whole scenario was… surreal. The whole thing was so completely surreal. He was on a highway heading east through Nebraska with Ryan Evans to stop New York City from exploding, because both he and Ryan were indestructible. While his friends were in New Mexico wondering where the hell they had gone, there was a psycho out there killing people like him, there were people out there kidnapping people like him, and Ryan Evans could read his mind.

"Let's stop at the next rest stop. I need to stretch my legs."

"Sure, we need gas anyway."

Chad pulled the next gas station. Ryan jumped out of the car as soon as Chad put it into neural and pulled the parking brake.

"I'll handle paying for gas," he announced on his way out.

"I'll just… fill the car," Chad said dejectedly as he watched Ryan trot off inside, probably to the bathroom.

The tank topped off as Ryan returned.

"I already paid," he stated.

"Cool."

"I needed to stretch my wings." Ryan spread his arms out and spun in a graceful circle.

"Your wings?"

"Yes. Should I grab some junk food too?"

"I've only been craving beef jerky for the past hour!" Chad enthused.

"I know," Ryan smirked at him.

"Are we going to go the rest of eternity with you being all superior about being able to read my mind?"

"Among other things, yes."

"Great," Chad scoffed.

"Don't worry, baby," Ryan cooed sarcastically as he cupped Chad's face. "I'll make you an honest man."

"What're you talking - You know, never mind."

Ryan leaned close and gave Chad a peck on the lips. "You're gorgeous when you're confused."

Chad's mind took a moment to catch up before he gloated. "You think I'm gorgeous," he said in a sing-song voice. "You want to kiss me. You want to hug me. You want to love me - "

"Chad," Ryan interrupted firmly. "We need to head out. You can quote chick flicks in the car."

"Hey! You'd have to have seen it to know - "

"Chad," Ryan repeated.

"What?"

"We need to leave."

"Why?"

"I'll explain in the car. Let me drive."

"Um… sure." Chad handed Ryan the keys.

A mile down the road, Ryan said, "It gave me a headache."

"What did?"

"I spent hours with just your head, and then there were other people…"

"I think you should know that we're going to a huge city. There are a lot more than two people there."

"I'm well aware."

Chad suppressed a snort when Ryan jutted his chin out petulantly. "Is that all? I mean, you kinda freaked."

Ryan hmphed, and it reminded Chad of Sharpay when she didn't get what she wanted.

"Well?" Chad pressed.

"The man tending the station was going to put a bullet through your skull."

"What!?"

"Welcome to the rural Midwest. It's not as understanding as the city or even the suburbs."

"So he saw us macking and wanted to kill me?"

"Us, technically."

"That sucks. But you realize, I'd mend. We both would."

"Not if he hit a certain part, like what Mohinder said."

"I didn't know you cared," Chad teased, placing a hand on Ryan's thigh.

Ryan scoffed. "Cut that out."

"Hey now, no fair. You can touch me and make me all hot and bothered, but I can't do the same to you?"

"No," Ryan said tersely. "You can't. Not while I'm driving."

They passed a sign that announced the distance to Lincoln: 100 miles.

Chad groaned. "Do we have to stop in Lincoln?"

"We could go all the way to Omaha or even Des Moines if you'd prefer."

"Don't be cocky with me."

Ryan purred at him.

"Oh!" Chad protested. "Oh, come on!"

"No," Ryan stated again. "We'll be in Lincoln in about an hour and a half. And half an hour after than I will have you pinned to a mattress, don't worry." Chad released a raspy breath. "Now shut up and let me drive."

Chad sulked and thought dirty things at Ryan. By the time they entered the Lincoln city limits, Ryan's knuckles were white as he desperately clung to the steering wheel, and his breath was short.

Ryan seemed to know exactly where he wanted to go, Chad observed. They zigzagged all over Lincoln before turning into a parking lot by a nice looking house. The sign outside proclaimed it to be The Rogers House Bed and Breakfast Inn.

"Is this where we're staying for the night?" Chad asked as Ryan hopped out of the car.

"Yup, grab your bag."

"Thank God," Chad breathed and nearly stumbled in his haste to catch up with Ryan.

They entered the house, and Chad took the whole thing in with wonder as Ryan spoke with the girl at the front desk. It was a quaint old house, a historical landmark if the promotional paraphernalia were any indication. This was the kind of place Chad's mother would enjoy.

"Chad!" Ryan called. "C'mon." Ryan motioned for Chad to join him at the desk.

"Here are your keys," the girl announced handing Ryan and Chad a key each. "Are you sure you don't want a cot rolled in?"

"Quite sure," Chad said quickly.

She smiled at them. "Breakfast will be delivered to your room at 9 tomorrow morning. Have fun antiquing!"

Ryan smiled back. "We will."

He led Chad up a stairwell. "What the hell was she talking about?"

"Antiquing is a… well, it's a euphemism for being gay."

"She knew we were gay!"

"Calm down. We are staying in a room that is pretty much the honeymoon suite. She didn't have to think too hard to come to conclusions."

"Honeymoon suite?" Chad squeaked.

"Yeah, the Banker's Suite."

"That doesn't sound romantic… I can't believe I said that." Chad made a face.

"It has a jacuzzi for two."

"Seriously?"

They came to a stop in front of a giant oak door. Chad stared at it.

"Well, are you going to open it up?"

"Oh!" Chad fumbled with the key until he was able to open the door.

He and Ryan stepped in and locked the door behind them. They dropped their bags in the entrance way.

"Whoa," Chad whispered, taking in the suite. It was huge and just as quaint as the rest of the place. There was a queen-sized bed, a couple of couches, a freaking _fireplace_, some weird greenhouse-sun room, and a giant jacuzzi.

Ryan hummed in agreement.

"I thought we would be staying in motels, but this is way better."

"You thought I would stay at a motel?" Ryan asked incredulously.

"Well, I suppose not."

Ryan hummed again before tackling Chad to the couch in front of the fire.

Chad released a very undignified squawk, and Ryan growled against his mouth, "I've been waiting all fucking day for this."

"Did you just say "fuck"?" Chad gasped.

"Yes, now shut up." Ryan nipped a trail down Chad's neck for emphasis. "There are other things you could be doing."

Chad could not agree more. He was underneath Ryan, which meant that Ryan had gravity working against him. Chad took advantage of this by gyrating his hips in an obscene mockery of one of Ryan's dance routines. He tossed Ryan's hat off of his head and wrapped his hands around Ryan's waist, and they came to a rest on Ryan's butt. He squeezed and pulled Ryan's hips towards him.

Ryan growled again, bringing one hand up underneath the back of Chad's form-fitting t-shirt and the other tracing along the inside of the elastic on Chad's boxers. Ryan's hips pressed down onto Chad's, and he bit and licked at a certain point on Chad's neck that caused a severe reaction from Chad including a loud, throaty groan and a pronounced shudder.

Chad had to put every effort into willing himself to not come in his pants. He cursed his lack of stamina but blamed a lack of practice with another body - okay, no practice at all with another body except for those three times with Ryan - and the fact that his and Ryan's foreplay had lasted days.

"You come in your pants and I will lick you clean," Ryan murmured into Chad's mouth.

Chad came instantly with a silent cry and a violent shudder. "You'd better make good on your promise," he said breathlessly.

Ryan smirked at him as his long fingers began to unbutton and unzip Chad's jeans. Very slowly. Antagonizingly slowly.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've been called an antagonist."

"Are you always this much of smart ass?"

Ryan didn't answer. He slipped a hand inside the "v" of the open zipper and the slit in the boxers and cupped Chad, squeezing lightly before he removed his hand and leaned back onto his haunches.

Chad propped himself up on his elbows and watched Ryan in confusion. Ryan sucked his fingers into his mouth and made a show of licking them clean. Chad's mind shorted out when Ryan started humming appraisingly.

"You eat a lot of bananas," he said around his fingers.

"Was that some sort of euphemism?" Chad attempted to say but couldn't force out all the words. Ryan heard it in his mind anyway.

"No, it means that your come tastes sweet."

Chad grunted and wriggled his hips as the uncomfortable feeling of sticky boxers settled over him.

In one swift movement, Ryan removed Chad's boxers and jeans so they pooled around his thighs. Chad was still hard and squirmed, writhing unattractively as Ryan licked him clean. He was moving antagonizingly slowly again, and the heat of Ryan's mouth on him and the cool of where said mouth had been was one of the most amazing and intense feelings Chad had ever experienced.

"It gets better." Ryan's voice sent glorious vibrations against his upper thighs.

Chad almost whited out when Ryan swallowed him whole, no preamble, just the tip of his cock hitting the back of Ryan's throat.

He let out a keening whine. There was too much stimulation. It was so much so quickly. And Ryan was pinning his legs down, and Chad desperately wanted to thrust up into Ryan's wet mouth.

Ryan started to hum, and Chad lost it. He thrashed his head side to side, his curls obscuring his face, sticking in places to the sweat that had formed on his forehead, as his hands dug into Ryan's shoulders.

He was going to come again. Chad's stomach muscles quivered as he tried to control himself. One of Ryan's hands wound around Chad's back when he had arched up. The hand traced the curve of Chad's butt.

Ryan had another hand. Chad knew this, but he still jumped when it came to rest on his balls. Ryan palmed and massaged Chad's balls until they drew up. Ryan stopped humming and drew back so that only the tip of Chad's cock was in his mouth. He stuck his tongue in the slit, and Chad came again, clawing at Ryan's back.

Chad thumped his head back down on the couch. Ryan didn't come, he noted. He also noted the bulge in Ryan's powder blue pants. Chad would never admit that he was intimidated, but he had no idea what to do. Well, he knew what to do; he just didn't know what he would feel comfortable doing.

He thought back to the locker room at Lava Springs where he and Ryan fooled around for one of the first few times and the Bolton's laundry room… and the bathroom at homecoming. It had mostly been Ryan as the aggressor, but Chad had no problem reaching into Ryan's pants then, so he did it again, but Ryan stopped him with a tight hand around Chad's wrist.

"Let me remove my pants first." Ryan untangled himself from Chad, shimmied out of his pants, and tossed them onto the bed.

"All this time you haven't been wearing underwear?!" Chad wailed.

Ryan smirked as he climbed back onto Chad who ran his hands up Ryan's thighs. His hands reunited at the junction of Ryan's legs, and he attempted to remember what Ryan had liked that first time.

"Be creative," Ryan suggested as his breath grew labored.

Chad took Ryan's advice and attempted to recreate what he did when he was by himself with Ryan. Unfortunately, all of the actions were the mirror image of what Chad was accustomed to, which led to awkward hand movements with no rhythm. He continued with clunky, uncomfortable motions until Ryan's hand joined his, and they continued together.

Ryan demonstrated exactly what he was craving, and Chad watched in fascination as their fingers entwined over Ryan's cock. It was weird but in a good way.

It didn't take long for Ryan to come. Their combined hands caught most of what Ryan released, and Ryan brought their hands up to his lips, licking his and Chad's hand clean.

"You have this really weird oral fixation," Chad pointed out.

"Are you complaining?" Ryan raised an eyebrow at Chad as he removed all digits from his mouth.

"No!"

"Good. Now rest up, because I intend to christen every surface in this suite, including that jacuzzi."

Ryan climbed off Chad and peeled off his shirt. Now completely naked, Ryan wandered into the bathroom to wash up. Chad would catch up with him in a moment �" as soon as he caught his breath and convinced his heart rate that he had not just run a marathon.

* - * - *

Someone very evil was knocking on the door.

Chad glanced at the clock on the night stand. Well, he would have, but there was a very naked blond sprawled out on top of him, and he couldn't move at all. Chad very carefully maneuvered so that Ryan no longer was on top of him and reluctantly crawled out of the warm bed.

He had some forethought to grab a pair of jeans and put them on before he answered the door, which was good. He really didn't want the man delivering their breakfast to know every detail of his anatomy.

"Thanks," he said in a hoarse voice. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to tip the man, but he was saved when Ryan showed up with a generous tip.

Ryan took the tray of food to the table in the sun room. Chad followed like a puppy. There were eggs, French toast, homefries, and orange juice, and Chad was starving.

He dug in enthusiastically.

"Some of this is for me," Ryan reminded him.

"Right. You can have the maple syrup."

Ryan's grin reminded Chad of the Grinch's when he conceived the idea to steal Christmas from the Whos. It made him uneasy as an intense feeling of foreboding settled over him.

"What?"

"I wouldn't put the syrup on the French toast."

Chad almost dropped his forkful of eggs. "We do need to leave some time today," he said haltingly.

"No. I booked this room for two nights," Ryan shrugged.

"What?! Why?"

Ryan grinned at Chad. "We still haven't christened anything in this room," he said with feigned innocence.

"What?! Oh! You're - you're evil! But shouldn't we, uh, get to New York as soon as possible?" Chad protested feebly. Apparently their actions last night did not release all of the sexual tension in Ryan like it had for Chad. Not that Chad was averse to ever having sex with Ryan again. He just felt that stopping New York from exploding was a little higher up there in his priorities. No offence to Ryan or anything, but New York had two weeks, and he and Ryan had all eternity.

"New York will be fine for another day."

"Are you sure?"

Ryan projected an image that made Chad's knees buckle.

"That is cheating."

"An Evans will do anything to get his way. Are you complaining?"

"Only about - You know what? Never mind."

Ryan grabbed Chad's fork and put it down on the table before he clutched Chad's hand and dragged him over to their bed.

Chad made a small, startled noise, but he allowed himself to be dragged.

* - * - *

Chad tried to massage the ache from his jaw as Ryan navigated them back onto I80 as he hummed some tune Chad vaguely recognized.

"Where's our next stop?" Chad asked.

"South Bend, Indiana. An Irish Bed and Breakfast called Innisfree, in a suite named after Yates."

"How far away is that?"

"About ten hours."

"Seriously? Well, I guess that explains why we left so early."

"Yeah. Do you think you can make it that long?"

"Yeah. It'll take that long for my jaw to recover."

Ryan grinned at him. "We can stop in Chicago for a late lunch, and be in South Bend by early evening."

They passed a mile marker sign for Omaha.

"But first can we stop in Omaha for junk food? I still want some beef jerky."

"We can."

"Where are we going after South Bend?"

"Pittsburgh, then New York."

"How far away is Pittsburgh from New York?"

"Six hours."

"So we'll be in New York in about three days?"

"Yes."

"Huh."

"Does that fit into your busy schedule?" Ryan asked condescendingly.

"Hey now. There's no need to be all testy. Especially after the past thirty-six hours."

"I'm fine," he said shortly.

"Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry if I did." Chad frowned in thought. He didn't remember anything that he thought or said that would be considered offensive in any context. Ryan was grinning at him a moment ago. It was like some switch had been flipped, and Chad was exposed to the nasty side of Ryan's personality. It sorta reminded him of Sharpay, and that was a freaky thought.

"No," Ryan sighed. "It's… I'm not sure how to explain it."

"We have ten hours with nothing better to do. Why don't you at least try? I can't just reach into your head and take it."

"It's…" Ryan groped for the right word. "It's like I'm not completely in control of my body's responses."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like someone else other than me is controlling me."

"Are you talking about God or something?"

"No!" Ryan said tersely. "Nothing biblical, just… I don't know. It's this weird feeling that I'm not in control of me."

"Huh." That would explain Ryan's crazy mood swings, but it didn't explain the how.

"Can we not talk about it now?" Ryan begged.

"Uh, sure. No problem." Chad gave Ryan a concerned look and then looked out the window.

* - * - *

"Where are we going when we get to New York?" Chad asked, prompted by a sign informing them that New York was 75 miles in front of them.

"We're going to find Peter Petrelli."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"I haven't a clue."

"Oh. That's not very helpful." Chad thought for a moment. "What about that artist that paints the future?"

"What about him?"

"Wouldn't he know what's going on?"

"He might but I don't know where he lives either."

"Oh. Uh, never mind, then."

"No, it was a good point. Isaac Mendez would have a greater insight into the whole situation than Peter."

"Isaac's the artist?"

"Yeah."

"What about Dr. Suresh? He obviously knows Peter."

Ryan thought on it. "Let's start with Mohinder. I think I can remember where he lives."

"You know where he lives?"

"I was in his mind."

"So even if I'm not thinking about something if I know it, you can still know it?"

"Yeah."

"Oh God. That is - I'm doomed."

"You're not doomed. Don't be so melodramatic. You simply won't be able to keep a secret from me."

"Great," Chad muttered darkly. "Wait! Is that why you've known exactly where we were going and never needed a map or to ask for directions?"

Ryan laughed. "It took you five days to think to ask that. Yes, that's why."

"What are you gonna do when we're in the city and there are millions of people around?"

"I'm going to focus on you," Ryan said with feigned sweetness.

Chad rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

* - * - *

Chad knocked on Dr. Suresh's door for the fifth time.

"Are you sure he's there?"

"Yeah. He's there."

"Dr. Suresh!" Chad bellowed. "Why isn't he answering the door?" he asked Ryan.

"He's scared?" Ryan furrowed his brow.

"Why would he be scared of us?"

"He's not scared of us. He's scared of - Sylar."

"Sylar? Dr. Suresh! It's Chad and Ryan!" Chad banged on the door again. "From New Mexico!"

"He's coming!" Ryan announced giddily.

The door opened slowly.

"Come in quickly," Dr. Suresh hissed.

The door was triple locked behind them.

Chad took in Dr. Suresh's apartment. It was a mess, a complete mess. It looked like a tornado had torn through.

"A serial killer did," Ryan projected.

Oh… Oh! That was why Dr. Suresh looked like he hadn't slept in years.

"What brings you boys to New York?" he asked. He sounded exhausted.

"We're looking for Peter Petrelli," Ryan said.

Dr. Suresh looked remorseful. "Peter Petrelli is dead."

"What?! He can't be dead - he's going to - That's not possible!" Chad declared.

"He's dead," Dr. Suresh asserted. "Sylar killed him."

"So Sylar can do what Peter could?" Ryan asked.

"No." He paused. "Peter's body is with his mother and brother."

"Thank you, Mohinder," Ryan said quickly before Chad could open his mouth. "Chad and I will be going now. Good luck with Molly."

"Who's Molly?" Chad asked as Ryan shoved him out the door.

"She's a girl with the Shanti virus," Ryan explained as they climbed into the Viper. "Mohinder's trying to save her."

"Oh. Cool."

"Okay, we're heading to Manhattan, now."

"Do you think that Peter's really dead?"

"He was dead when Mohinder transported him. Although, I have no idea why he brought Peter to his mother's penthouse instead of bringing him to the hospital."

Chad shrugged. "If he was killed by Sylar, how would Dr. Suresh explain the cause of death?"

"Peter was hit in the back of the head with a giant shard of glass, not by Sylar ripping his head open."

"So Sylar didn't kill him?"

"No. Sylar lodged the glass into Peter's head."

"That doesn't make sense either."

"I don't think much of what is going to happen here on out is going to make much sense. After all, _we_ don't make sense if you think about it."

"I already went through my identity crisis," Chad stated smugly.

"Yes, yes," Ryan said dismissively. "Now keep quiet: I need to steer through New York City traffic."

* - * - *

Chad knocked on the door as Ryan conducted a few calming yoga exercises.

A young man answered the door. "Hello, can I help you boys?" His voice was gravelly, and Chad loved it.

"Peter," Ryan said. "We need to come in."

"Peter?! But Dr. Suresh said - You were dead; he saw you!"

"Yes, come in," Peter said hastily, cutting off Chad.

The door clicked shut behind them.

"Ryan, what are you doing here?" Peter hissed. "You and your friend need to leave this city as soon as possible. A bomb may go �" "

"We're here to stop you from exploding," Ryan said loftily.

"How - how would you know that?"

"I…" Ryan trailed off. "It's a long story - Hey, you can read my mind too."

"Too?" Chad and Peter said simultaneously.

"Peter, I'm exactly the same as you are. I absorb what other people can do."

"You can do what now?" Peter brushed his bangs behind his ear.

"And my friend Chad is exactly like your niece."

"My niece?"

"Claire."

A blonde girl peaked around a corner. "I heard my name?"

"Claire, this doesn't concern you. These two were just leaving."

"It happens the day after the election," Ryan said. "And you've already told Claire that you need her to be there. Chad and I can back you up too."

Claire came to stand next to Peter and examined Chad and Ryan. "You both can heal too?"

They both nodded.

"Peter, they could really help."

Peter looked to Ryan. Chad assumed that they were having a conversation in their heads, so he ignored them as he took in the rest of the house. It was huge. No one would ever need so much space. Rich people confused him.

Claire watched Peter and Ryan, but she had no idea what was going on, so she watched Chad.

Feeling eyes on him, Chad looked to Claire. She was pretty hot, which disturbed him because she was like a curvier version of Sharpay. But Sharpay and Ryan were twins and looked similar, and Ryan was hot.

"Hey!" Peter roared.

Chad jumped and blinked at him owlishly.

"Don't think about my niece that way!"

"Uh, what? I was thinking about how Ryan's hot."

Ryan beamed as Claire stared at Chad with an open mouth.

Peter frowned.

"Okay, if these guys aren't gonna let us help, what about the artist?" Chad offered.

"Isaac's dead," Ryan said. "Sylar killed him."

"Oh."

"But if you're looking for his paintings, they're all still there."

"Where?"

"His loft is on the Lower East Side."

"C'mon, Chad. Let's check out Isaac's loft."

"But - what - I'm so confused."

"That's okay, Chad. We're still going to stop a man from exploding, whether he wants our help or not."

"Hey!" Peter objected.

"We'll see you later, Peter, Claire." Ryan tipped his hat to each of them before leaving with Chad.

"Dude, what's going on?"

Ryan jumped into the car and motioned for Chad to follow suit. "Nathan and Mrs. Petrelli are not doing anything to stop Peter from exploding and are trying to stop Claire from trying."

"What?"

"Going to Isaac's loft may help us to stop Peter."

"Okay, I'm still really confused as to what's going on. You do realize that most of what you and Peter said was in your heads, right?"

"Yes, I realize. I also realize that the election is a day away, giving us two days to prevent the city from exploding."

Chad nodded. "Did you decide where we're going to be staying?"

Ryan raised an eyebrow at Chad. "I knew before we even left Albuquerque."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We're staying at The Plaza."

"Dude! That would - holy fuck, that would be amazing!"

"I know." Ryan beamed at him.

"You are amazing, man!" Chad said with a cheesy grin.

"Stop, you're going to make me blush," he said bashfully.

They pulled up in front of The Plaza.

"Hey, I thought we were going to Isaac's apartment."

"We are, but I see no reason to drive down there to drive back up here."

"You are something else, Ry."

"You're going all mushy on me, Chad."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It may be in the next few days."

"But those nights?"

"Do you intend to keep that promise?"

"Yup."

A valet opened the door for each of them.

"This is going to be so kickass!" Chad gushed, staring up the face of the building.

Ryan pulled their bags out of the trunk and handed Chad his. "Your bourgeois is showing," he said wryly.

"Sorry," Chad said sheepishly.

"C'mon." Ryan led Chad into the building by the small of his back.

* - * - *

Chad's mouth dropped open. "We're staying here?"

"Yes. Close your mouth. It's not at all attractive," Ryan admonished.

"Have you seen this room?! I've never seen anything so… posh! And our room looks out over the park and everything!"

Ryan shrugged. "I've stayed here before."

"Can we go on a horse and buggy ride?"

"Sure. After we stop the city from exploding."

"Your life is so…different from mine. I don't think I'll ever get used to this."

Ryan shrugged again. "Let's go to Isaac's loft. We can admire the décor later. We're also running low on money."

They caught a cab to the Lower East Side and had no difficulty accessing Isaac's loft. They found all of his paintings, but couldn't figure out what they meant.

"Have these things happened yet?" Chad wondered aloud.

Ryan looked pointedly at the floor. "This one obviously hasn't."

Chad pointed to a picture of a man who appeared to be on fire. "Peter thinks that's him?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. It doesn't look like him." Chad titled his head to the side. "Nope, still don't see it."

"I think this one is Claire." Ryan stood in front of a painting of a blonde cheerleader.

"And this is the bastard who abducted me!" Chad stood in front of a painting of a man with horn-rimmed glasses who had been shot through the eye. "Good, he's served justice!"

"Uh, Chad. That's Claire's father - well, adoptive father."

"What now? His daughter is exactly like I am, and he abducted me?"

"Yeah."

"That makes no sense."

"Isaac painted his own death. That must be a very eerie feeling."

"What?"

"Take a look at this."

"Is that Sylar?"

"Yeah."

"That is really nasty."

"Let's head back uptown before Sylar decides to return to paint a pretty picture."

"Do you really think he'd return here?"

"Does that matter? Let's go."

"You're freaking out. I'll take that as a bad sign. Yeah. We can go."

* - * - *

The bright fluorescent lights of the department store made Chad's eyes burn.

"Why are we here?"

"We're running low on money."

"So we're buying things?"

"Exactly." Ryan held up a gaudy, plastic necklace.

"Is that how you did it before?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. Hey, why were you so freaked out in Isaac's loft?"

"Two reasons," Ryan explained as he examined the jewelry. "One: two people were coming, and two: Isaac's body was in the other room."

"Ew!"

"I agree. Okay, let's go with these."

"I assume you know where the nearest pawn shop is?"

Ryan smiled confidently.

* - * - *

Chad fell backwards onto the bed in their hotel room. It was the most comfortable bed he had ever been on, and the sheets �" the sheets were satin. He wanted to lie there for days.

"We don't have days," Ryan reminded him. "Actually, we have about twenty-four hours."

"How do you know?" Chad propped himself up on his elbows.

"The painting of the exploding man happens at night. In Kirby Plaza."

"How do you know it's Kirby Plaza?"

"Peter knew."

"But how do you know it's tomorrow night?"

"I just do, Chad. Let it go."

"Fine. What are we doing tomorrow?"

"We've exhausted all outlets."

"What about Peter's brother?"

"He's not willing to try to stop the bomb - I know that because he was in the other room when we were at the Petrelli's."

"This sucks."

"Yeah. Do you we need to stay out all tomorrow night?"

"Probably. I don't have an exact time."

"Then we'd better sleep in tomorrow morning. Then we can go on a horse and buggy ride. You know, in case we can't stop the bomb."

Ryan smiled shyly at Chad. "Yeah, we can do that."

"Let me know if you come up with a way to stop them between now and then."

"I think I do."

"Really?" Chad sat up fully.

"Yeah. Peter has had difficulty accommodating new abilities as he absorbed them. I haven't had those problems; it just came smoothly."

"What's the difference between you and him, though?"

"Besides the fact that he has an overbearing mother, Peter can't center himself."

"Wha?"

"I just hope it works."

"Me too, whatever it is."

Ryan crawled over the bed to Chad and pushed him down to the mattress. "Now I believe you made a promise to me earlier."

Chad smiled hugely. "I believe I did."

* - * - *

"New York is awesome!" Chad enthused as he and Ryan climbed out of the horse-drawn carriage. "That was a fantastic horse and buggy ride! We have to do it again!"

"If we're still around tomorrow, we can," Ryan agreed. "I also promised Shar to bring her back some clothes from Madison Avenue."

Chad rolled his eyes. "Of course she would want clothes. You probably want to see a Broadway show, don't you?"

Ryan grinned. "We should head to dinner and then stake out Kirby Plaza."

"Did you have a place in mind?"

"Yeah. Greenwich Village: a little restaurant called Babbo."

"Babbo?" Chad repeated incredulously.

"Have you ever watched Iron Chef America?"

"Once when Zeke was over."

"One of those chefs owns the place."

"Awesome!" Chad cheered, drawing Ryan to him for a quick kiss.

"Yes, yes," Ryan said dismissively.

* - * - *

Chad and Ryan had been sitting on the fountain in Kirby Plaza for hours, and Chad's butt was going numb.

Something was going on in the building above, and that made Ryan tense, but nothing was happening in the plaza.

"I never figured vigilante work was so boring," Chad moaned.

Ryan snapped at him. "Shh!"

"Wha- " Ryan slapped a hand over Chad's mouth. "What the hell?" Chad thought at Ryan.

Ryan pointed to a dark figure who had entered the plaza. "That's Sylar," resonated in Chad's mind.

Sylar looked directly at them and Chad's mind went white in terror, but Sylar looked directly through them.

"Can't he see us?" Chad thought at Ryan.

"We're both invisible."

"You turned me invisible?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. You're full of surprises."

"Yes, now let me concentrate… Sylar thinks that he's the bomb."

"Is he?"

"I don't know - here comes Peter."

"Didn't I kill you?" Sylar asked.

"Didn't take," Peter spat back.

Suddenly the plaza was filled with people watching Peter and Sylar duke it out including the man with horn-rimmed glasses, and there was something wrong with Ryan. He had gone ridged and distant.

"Ryan?" Chad projected in distress.

Ryan didn't respond for a second. "I'm okay - it's - they all have abilities and my body had a difficult time digesting their powers."

While Chad's head was turned, a man with a katana had arrived, and by the time Chad's attention was back on the action, Sylar had a sword through his torso and Peter was glowing.

"Now would be a good time to keep him from exploding," Chad whispered.

"Hiro, you have to kill me!" Peter begged, and then Hiro was gone.

"Peter!" Claire came running into the plaza.

"Claire! I can't control it! Kill me!"

She stared at him tearfully. "There has to be another way!" she implored.

Ryan was visible again and striding over between the gun Claire waved and Peter.

"Ryan!"

"Peter. I can help you. Let me."

"You sound like my brother, and he wanted the city to explode."

"Peter, take a deep breath and focus on my voice and my mind," Ryan said in a deep, commanding voice Chad had heard once before, and it still gave him shivers.

Peter nodded shakily.

"Good, now draw your hands together as if you were praying and find your center."

"Dude, are you making him do yoga exercises?" Chad asked.

A man came down from the sky. "Peter?"

"Nathan!" Peter yelped. So that was Nathan. He was hot, really hot… and apparently, he could fly.

"Peter, focus on me!" Ryan shouted. "You want to clear your mind of everything, including your abilities."

The water from the fountain leapt into the air and swirled around Ryan and Peter, obscuring them from the outside world. Chad couldn't even hear what was going on, and then the water fell down to the ground.

Peter wasn't glowing anymore, but Chad had never seen Ryan so manic.

He rushed over to Ryan as Nathan ran to Peter. They enveloped their prospective queries in bone-crushing hugs.

"Did you just save New York?" Chad whispered into Ryan's shoulder.

"Yeah. With yoga." He burst out laughing. Chad couldn't determine if it was relief or if it was the absurdity of the entire situation.

"You are amazing!" Chad squeezed him again.

"I know, but these people need our help still." Ryan unwound himself from Chad's arms and pointed to a man whose shirt resembled Swiss cheese. "He has the same blood type as you and four holes in his chest."

"Has someone called for an ambulance?" someone asked.

"I did," Dr. Suresh said.

"Oh! Hey, Dr. Suresh!" Chad greeted cheerily. "When the ambulance arrives, they should hook me up to him, 'cause apparently we have the same blood type."

Dr. Suresh nodded mutely, still trying to keep the other man from bleeding out.

Chad heard the sirens in the background, gradually becoming louder as he took in the people scattered about the plaza. There was a kid who looked exactly like him only about ten years younger.

"Nice hair," Chad commented, nodding towards the boy.

He cracked a slight smile. "You too."

Chad beamed, and the ambulances arrived. He held onto Ryan as the emergency crews sifted through the crowd to find the injured.

"Where's Sylar?" Ryan asked abruptly.

Chad looked over the plaza, and couldn't see Sylar anywhere. There wasn't even a trail of blood, because everything was wet from the fountain doing its weird thing - whatever Ryan did to it.

One of the EMTs approached Chad. "You have the same blood type as that man?" He pointed to the man with the holes in his chest.

"Yeah."

"Are you a relative?"

"No, I'm a close friend of… uh."

"Matt Parkman," Ryan piped up.

"Okay, you're with us. You'll ride in the back."

Chad gave Ryan a quick peck on the cheek. "You'll know where to find us. Watch out for Sylar."

Ryan nodded as Chad followed the EMT to the ambulance and jumped in.

The EMT immediately stuck an IV into Chad's arm before Chad even had a chance to sit down, and once a pint was drawn, it was plugged into Matt Parkman's IV.

Chad munched on the crackers an EMT had given him as he watched Matt curiously. He'd never seen someone who'd been shot before, and there was some sick fascination in it.

Matt released a wet, bubbly noise, and the EMTs swarmed around him until Chad couldn't see him anymore.

When Chad could see Matt again, he was sitting up patting his torso and the EMTs were all in a severe state of confusion.

"Dude, did that seriously just happen?" Chad asked in disbelief.

The ambulance came to a stop in front of the hospital.

Matt looked to him. "Who are you?"

"My blood type's the same as yours," Chad shrugged.

"I thought you said that he was a family friend," an EMT accused.

Chad shrugged again.

"But you knew his name."

"Actually, my friend did."

Chad wondered if Matt could do anything exciting - if he had an ability. At the moment, though, Chad was more fascinated by the fact that his ability to heal had transferred to Matt.

"You're like Claire," Matt blurted.

"Yeah - are you like Sharpay?"

Matt's brow frowned. "Yeah, yeah. Exactly."

"Cool, man. I'm Chad Danforth."

An emergency team flung open the back door of the ambulance and skidded to a halt when they saw the two guys without any sign of injury.

"What was the emergency?" one of them asked.

"This man took heat to the chest: four bullets."

"What happened?"

"I have no idea."

"You're coming with us, Mr. Parkman. We need to keep you for further observation."

Another ambulance skidded to a stop in front of the hospital, and emergency teams unloaded another man who had been in the plaza.

Chad and Matt were escorted to a room and given paper work to fill out.

"So, Matt. What brings you to Kirby Plaza?"

"A tracking system. You?"

"An exploding man."

"You knew about Peter Petrelli?"

"Yeah, my… friend is like Peter. So what kind of tacking system?"

"A little girl."

"A girl is the tracking system?" Chad raised his eyebrows skeptically.

"You can heal, and I can read your mind," Matt pointed out. "Man, I sound crazy saying that."

"No more than me."

Ryan entered the room without knocking. "Chad."

Chad leapt up from his seat and hugged him. "Is Peter alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine."

"Is Molly okay?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, she's fine too."

"We should head out," Ryan suggested. "I'm glad that you're okay, Officer Parkman," he continued with a charming smile.

"Thanks for your magical blood," Matt called after them.

Chad smiled. "No problem, Officer."

He and Ryan walked back to their hotel room.

"So you stopped Peter from exploding?"

"Yeah."

"You don't think he's gonna have another crisis?"

"Not with exploding."

"Wow. You really did it, Ryan." Pride welled up in Chad's chest. "You - nobody but the ten or so people in that plaza know how super awesome you are. I would even go as far as saying that you were fabulous!"

Ryan blushed. "It was just yoga."

"You saved this city with _yoga_!" Chad shouted to the sky with a laugh.

"I did," Ryan agreed modestly, but he broke out in a shy smile and did some weird funky dance move in the middle of the crosswalk. "Dance with me."

"Are you going to make - Oh, hell, I'll do it anyway. You're that fabulous." Chad took Ryan by the hand, and they danced across the street.

* - * - *

"Mom!" Chad shouted as he barged in through the front door. "I'm home! I brought Ryan too!"

"Chad?"

"Mom!" A dopey grin plastered itself to Chad's face.

Ms. Danforth ran into the front hallway and hugged her son tightly. When she released him, she hugged Ryan equally as tightly as her own son.

"Mom! It was so cool! Ryan saved the city - he's a real hero! - and we brought you a present!"

He dug through his bag and presented her with a sky blue box with "Tiffany" written in silver lettering on the cover.

"What's this?"

"Open it!"

She did, exposing an elegant pair of diamond earrings.

"Oh! Chad! They're beautiful!"

"Ryan chose them," Chad admitted with a slight blush.

"They're beautiful, Ryan. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Ms. Danforth," he said bashfully.

"Now, I believe I promised you boys a home cooked meal. I have everything I need, but it will take a while to cook."

"You have everything?"

"I wouldn't be a mother if I didn't have a readily stocked fridge."

"Best Mom ever!" Chad declared.

"I'll make it for you boys, but I need stories of your time in the city."

"We stayed in The Plaza!" Chad gushed. "And Ryan saved the city!"

"The Plaza?" Chad's mother repeated, awed. "You also may have mentioned that Ryan saved the city. I'm very proud of both of you." She puttered around the kitchen taking out pots, pans, and food. She dropped a sack of potatoes in front of her son and handed him a peeler.

"There's really not much to tell, Mom. We met a lot of people like us. Um, what could they do, Ryan?" Chad picked up a potato and started peeling.

"There was Claire, who was also indestructible, the policeman who could read minds, a man who could bend space and time, a man who could walk through walls, a kid who could talk to machines, a girl who's pretty much like a GPS tracking system, a woman with super strength and a split personality, and the evil villain who ate brains to gain his victim's power."

"That sounds intense. Is that all?" she asked.

"No," Chad said giddily. "There was a man who could fly, and one who's exactly like Ryan - he was the one who Ryan stopped from exploding."

"How did you stop the man from exploding?"

"Ryan showed Peter yoga exercises."

"Yoga?"

"Yeah. Peter needed to know how to control himself." Chad slung an arm around Ryan. "It was so cool."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. But after we saved the city we went dancing across the city. And we went on a carriage ride through Central Park, and Ryan wanted to go see a Broadway show, so we saw The Lion King - which wasn't as lame as I thought - and we went shopping for you and Ryan's sister. New York is awesome!"

"He's been positively bouncing for the past week, Ms. Danforth. It's surprising that we made it back so quickly: he needed to get out of the car every hour or so."

She hummed in amusement. "When he was younger, he was like that around Christmas time."

"So what did we miss around here?" Chad asked quickly, to divert attention from his childhood habits.

"Your friends were frantic about your whereabouts. They thought that Ryan had kidnapped you, except for Troy who thought that you two had eloped."

Chad and Ryan flushed. "What did you tell them?" Chad asked in a small voice.

"That you would be home soon."

"They didn't keep pestering you, did they?"

"No, they seemed to be okay with it. That probably has to do with the fact that _I_ was calm, unlike when you had been kidnapped."

"We probably have tons of homework to make up, huh?"

Ms. Danforth pointed to a stack of papers on the counter. "Those are a gift from your best friend."

Chad groaned.

* - * - *

"That was the best dinner ever, Mom."

"I agree. That was delicious." Ryan glanced at his watch. "We should return the car, and I need to contact my family."

"You haven't been home yet?!" Ms. Danforth exclaimed, scandalized.

"Not yet, ma'am."

"You should call to tell them you're safe! Right this instant! The phone is right around the corner."

Ryan nodded, took a deep, cleansing breath, and went to call his sister.

"Mom! I had so much fun the past two weeks. And Ryan saved the city!"

His mother smiled fondly at him.

"You should go with Ryan to speak with his parents."

"Mom, his parents formed the company that kidnapped us; I doubt they'd be sympathetic to us."

"They're his parents, Chad," she insisted.

Ryan returned. "Shar's going to pick me up at the rental place."

"I'll go with you," Chad volunteered.

Ryan gave him a confused look.

"C'mon!"

"I want you back by midnight, mister. You have school tomorrow."

"Aw! Ma! You can't be serious!"

"I'm not. Tomorrow's Saturday."

Chad breathed a sigh of relief. "That wasn't a nice trick," he reprimanded.

His mother smiled at him. "I still want you back by midnight. I want to know that you're home and safe before I go to sleep."

"Sure thing, Ma." Chad gave her a hug before he and Ryan headed out.

* - * - *

"Daddy and Mother were frantic when you first disappeared," Sharpay informed them as they climbed into her car. "But they had this new tracking system find you, and they were fine."

"They didn't try to stop us?" Ryan asked with a frown.

"No. They knew what you were doing and who you were with."

"Really?"

"Yeah. They occasionally kept using the tracking system - "

"Her name is Molly," Ryan corrected.

"Pardon?" Sharpay said without a hint of sarcasm. Chad was impressed.

"The tracking system. Her name is Molly Walker."

"Anyway Daddy and Mother used her to make sure you kept out of trouble, but other than that, they were fine. By the way, I told them what I could do, and they were fine with it."

"That you know of," Ryan reminded her.

"No, they really were cool with it. When Linderman died, everything was fine."

"So they're not mad at me?"

"Oh, they're plenty mad. I think they may take away your credit cards."

"You know that doesn't really matter, right?" Chad piped in.

"Of course, _I_ know. _They_ don't. So what did you buy me?"

Chad groaned and buried his face in his hands. She wasn't interested in how her brother saved a city full of millions of people; she wanted to know what he bought her.

"I already know how he saved New York, but he's mentally hiding what he bought for me."

"What did I miss at school?" Ryan asked.

Sharpay started chattering about gossip that Chad only half listened to.

* - * - *

"Ducky!"

Mrs. Evans and Ryan did some freaky little greeting thing that involved kissing their pointer fingers and bringing them together.

"And you must be Mr. Danforth!" She kissed both of Chad's cheeks.

"It's nice to see you again, Mrs. Evans."

"Come in, I think we still have some leftovers from dinner. So how was your cross country trip?"

"No, thank you. We already ate, Mrs. Evans."

"Then you must have some ice cream," she persisted.

"What is with parents and forcing food upon us?" Chad projected to Ryan.

"Are you complaining?" Ryan responded mentally.

Chad shook his head with a grin. "That would be awesome. Thanks."

Chad let Ryan explain everything to his parents and demonstrate all the abilities that he had absorbed as Mr. and Mrs. Evans watched in contemplation.

"It was Chad's wonderful idea, because he wanted to do something good with his invincibility," Ryan concluded.

All eyes in the room snapped to Chad.

"You possess rapid cellular regeneration, son?" Mr. Evans asked.

Chad wasn't sure who that question was directed at, but he nodded anyway.

Ryan looked to his parents morosely. "We already know the ramifications of that ability."

"What ramifications?" Chad asked warily.

"Immortality," Ryan answered.

"Yeah, we knew about that."

"Do you know that we have seen what it can do to a man? He needed to be locked away," Mrs. Evans explained.

"How old?"

"Four hundred years but he only aged forty years. He wanted to destroy the human race, to start over. He wanted to play God," Mr. Evans said seriously.

"Linderman wanted to do the same thing," Mrs. Evans continued.

"But Linderman is dead now."

"You still need to be careful never to take what you can do public."

"And you need to stay off the company's radar."

"There are still a few of the original founders alive, including us. You need to stay clear of them."

"Victoria Pratt has gone into a self-imposed hermitage, but Bob Bishop is still working for the company, and possibly Angela Petrelli, and Maury Parkman is a very, very dangerous man."

"Did Maury Parkman have a son?" Chad asked hastily.

"Yes. Mathew, I believe his name was," Mrs. Evans responded thoughtfully.

"I totally saved Matt's life! He was shot four times, and Ryan said that we had the same blood type, so I donated my blood. He healed quickly, like me."

"I hope you did the right thing, Chad," Mr. Evans said cautiously.

"He was trying to stop Sylar," Ryan explained.

They continued on until midnight. Chad didn't even notice how much time had passed, but he started to freak out when he did notice the time. "My Mom is going to _kill_ me!"

"No worries," Ryan said with a secretive smile. "I can teleport you home."

"You can do that?"

"Sure."

"Dude, you are awesome!" Without realizing what he was doing, Chad gave Ryan a peck on the lips.

Ryan flushed a deep red.

"Oh, Ducky!" Mrs. Evans giggled and wrapped her arms around Ryan. "I'm so happy for you!"

"I - I'd better take Chad home," Ryan said uneasily. He grabbed Chad, and they were suddenly on Chad's front stoop.

"I'm sorry, man. After the past few weeks, I - Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's alright. I was going to tell them. Not like that, but I was going to let them know."

"Hey, you haven't gone all schizo on me since New York didn't explode," Chad accused.

"That comment itself was rather schizo," Ryan said dryly.

Chad flushed. "I just remembered. I've been thinking about other things," he said defensively.

"It's like I told Peter: it's about finding your center, about balancing yourself."

"Wait, what does that mean?"

"It means that all parts of me are in balance together when they weren't before."

"Oh. I like you whole."

Ryan smiled shyly, and Chad kissed him again, deeper and more intimately. "I'll see you on Monday," he whispered into Ryan's mouth.

Ryan nodded and disappeared.

"I'm home, Ma!" Chad announced as he entered the house.

"I'm glad, honey," she said from her perch at the top of the stairs.

* - * - *

"Where the hell have you been?!" Troy demanded as Chad shoved his backpack into his locker.

"New York," Chad shrugged.

"You and Ryan went to New York? Without telling me?"

"I'm sorry, man. No one could know."

"Secret spy business?" Troy raised his eyebrows mockingly.

"No, well, kinda. We went to stop it from blowing up. Don't tell anyone."

"Who'd believe me? Did you succeed? Well, obviously no bomb went off."

"Ryan did it! It was amazing, Troy! And genius!"

"Sure, just don't go waxing poetry about his eyes."

Chad shot him a dirty look. "Dude, he stopped the city from exploding and killing millions of people. We didn't go on a romantic dinner and then fuck in the Viper."

"Actually, we did," Ryan said nonchalantly as he passed the two in the hallway.

Chad flushed. "After the city didn't explode," he responded weakly.

"You drove a Viper?!" Troy shrieked.

"Yeah. It was one of the coolest experiences ever."

The warning bell rang, and the two boys made their way to homeroom.

"Hey, where's Gabby?"

"She's checking out colleges in the Northeast like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale."

"Cool."

"Yeah. She's smart enough to get in, but she's gonna be really far away."

"Hey, man, college does have breaks." Chad thumped Troy on the back encouragingly.

* - * - *

Chad took a sip of his Long Island Iced Tea and dug his toes into the warm Caribbean sand.

"Have I told you lately how much I love your island?" he said lazily.

Ryan laughed. "Yes, every spring break for the past four years."

"I think I should say it again: I love your private island!" Chad shouted to the sky.

Ryan levitated over to Chad's chaise and dropped into his lap.

"Show off," Chad grumbled.

Ryan kissed Chad soundly, extracting the sweetness of Chad's drink from his mouth.

"I don't like to burn my feet on the sand."

"Hmm, baby," Chad taunted into Ryan's hair as Ryan kissed down his throat. "And I've never seen someone so lily white, especially if that someone owns his own Caribbean island." Chad swatted Ryan's butt playfully and accidentally toppled over his cocktail.

"Have you decided what you're going to do next year?" Ryan asked, wrapping his arms around Chad's neck.

"You haven't already heard it in my mind?"

"I want you to tell me yourself," Ryan said, feigning arrogance.

"Law school. I've applied to three of them: Columbia, Duke, and Georgetown. My LSAT scores are high enough and so's my GPA."

"What's your top choice?"

"Columbia, dude. It's in New York and so are you."

Ryan smiled. "I could help you, you know."

"That would be cheating," Chad tsked.

"So?"

Chad drew Ryan in for another kiss.

"You're changing the subject," Ryan accused.

"Is it working?"

"Mmm," Ryan hummed approvingly. "Very much so."

Ryan drew away, and when Chad reached for him, seawater was dumped onto his head.

Chad squawked in shock as water dripped from his curls. "That was playing dirty, Evans!"

Chad surged up to catch him, but Ryan kept teleporting around the beach as well as flying just above Chad's reach.

"Cheater!" Chad scolded.

Ryan grabbed Chad around the waist and flew out over the water.

"Don't you dare drop me!" Chad shouted as he squirmed.

Ryan kissed him behind the ear and dropped Chad into the waves.

Chad sunk into the water like a stone, and when he had stayed under long enough for Ryan to become concerned enough to inspect where Chad had entered the water, Chad leapt up from the water and dragged Ryan under with him.

They both emerged gasping for air and laughing manically before swimming in to shore.

Chad presented Ryan with his elbow. "May I have this dance?"

"You may."

They danced around in the surf until somehow they started chasing each other around splashing the other.

"Ryan!" was screeched over the sand. "Have some self-respect! You're an Evans for Christ's sake!"

Chad winced.

"Did I forget to mention Shar's spring break starts today?"

"Yeah, you did forget," Chad grumbled. "But I'm not going to let that ruin our fun." He splashed Ryan with his foot and ran off down the beach.

Instead of teleporting in front of him, flying after him, or stopping him in his tracks, Ryan ran after Chad and tackled him down to the sand in a fit of giggles.

* - * - *

The end.

 

Thanks for sticking around this long to read this!


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